GO 
THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
covery Passage, that we have just left ; or, to be more exact, about fifty-five miles 
in length. The shores are now getting truly mountainous in character, ridges 
and pea^s on the south side bearing snow throughout the summer on their 
summits, 4,000 to 5,000 feet high, and the pilot will tell you that the waters on 
which you are sailing correspond in their dimensions, in many places 100 to 
150 fathoms of line failing to reach bottom. The rough and rugged islands 
which we pass to our right, about three or four miles beyond Chatham Point, 
are the Pender Islands. The high mountains to the left and front are the 
Prince of Wales range. About fifteen to twenty miles after entering John¬ 
stone Strait, a conspicuous valley is seen on Vancouver Island, the only break 
in the high mountain range on that side. It is the valley of a stream called 
Salmon river, named from that delicious fish, which here abound, and in the 
pursuit of which the Indians have shown this stream to be navigable for canoes 
for a number of miles inland. A conspicuous conical hill, probably a thousand 
feet high, rises in the valley and marks it to the traveler. Just beyond Salmon 
river’s mouth, some three miles, the strait widens, another joining it from the 
north. The mountains to our left are now the New Castle range, Mount 
Palmerston attaining the height of 5,000 feet. At the northern end of John¬ 
stone Strait we have a number of channels to choose from,—Blackfish Sound, 
Weynton Passage, Race Passage and Broughton Strait, the longest of all, and 
only fifteen miles in length, which .we take. All these channels simply indicate 
that there is a cluster of islands where Johnstone Strait swells out into Queen 
Charlotte Sound, which we enter as Broughton Strait is left behind, and that as 
we select between different islands we take a different-named channel. These 
particular islands are the Malcolm Islands, sometimes confined in its applica¬ 
tion to the largest island. About half way through the Broughton Strait comes 
in the Nimpkish river from the Vancouver side. Mount Holdsworth is the 
high, conical peak we see to the south from here. At the mouth of the river is 
the Indian village of Cheslakee. It is said that an ascent of this river reveals 
the most picturesque scenery in lakes and falls, a saying to which all the 
surroundings in the inland passage itself, at this point, would give the most 
ample corroboration. Directly north from the river’s mouth is Cormorant 
Island, which we leave to our right; and the bay in its side is Alert Bay, where 
exist a salmon cannery, an Indian mission, a wharf at which ships can land, and 
other signs of civilization. 
Queen Charlotte Sound is one of the few openings to the Pacific Ocean. It 
is about fifty miles long, and, in some places, nearly half as wide, and looks like 
getting out to sea after having passed through the narrow channels just left 
behind. It was entered and named by Wedgeborough in the summer of 1786 ; 
so those visitors of 1886 to its grand waters may celebrate its centennial, and 
drink a toast to Queen Charlotte, the queen of King George III., and queen for 
fifty-seven years. About nine or ten miles on its waters, and to our left, is Fort 
Rupert, a Hudson Bay Company’s trading post, with a large Indian village 
clustered around it. Here fruits and vegetables are grown for the local 
