the valleys of the mountainous highlinds, Some of the inner lon- vitudinal valleys, beyond the outer mnges. are now under water, forming *canals” of great yalue for constwise navigation,”
Viewed as a whole the coast has a gener trend in a northwesterly direction, but in detail it is very irregular, reaching back into deep, marrow [jords, and fringed by a mass of ishinds of all sizes, The Fjords and straits are submerged valleys, both in line with and trans- verse to the veneral direction of the mountain minges, Of the fjords, Dr. G. M. Dawson writes: **Thetr width is ustally from one to three niles, their shores rocky and alrupt, and rising towards the heads of the lonver fjords into mountains from 6.000 fo 8.000 feet in height.” Asan illustration reference may be made to Lynn Canal, named and charted by Vancouver, which is a fjord, or estuary, embracing about B88 square nautical miles, und terminating in the two inlets tamed respectively Chilkat und Chilkoot,
When viewed from the standpoint of its geological origin and formation, the term Portland Canal should likewise be applied to the entire body of water embraced within the continental shores hetween Point Ramsden and the open sea, and terminating in the two inlets generally known as Porthind Cand and Observatory Inlet; such entire hody of water embracing abont 287 square nautical miles, being dotted by many islands. the larger of which are Pearse, Wales, Somerville, Fillmore, Sitklan, Kannaghunut, Compton, Trure, and ‘Tongass. ‘That Vancouver regarded the entire “arm of the sea.” or estrary, as above deseribed. as Porthind Canal is plainly indicated by the following: “In the forenoon we reached that ara of the see whose examination had oceapied our time from the 27th of the preceding to the 2nd of this month. The distance from its entrance to its source is about 7) miles. which. in honor of the noble family of Bentinek, T named Portlind’s Canal.”
Here isa clear and exact statement that the “arm of the sea” named
- Porthind’s Camu” was the body of water traversed between the 27th
of July,—on the morning of which he was in Observatory Inlet,
- ‘ahout twelye miles to the southward of the ships” (which were then
in Salmon Cove)—and the 2nd of August, in the evening of which he was in Nakat Inlet where, to use his own words “our hopes vinished
«From Prof. Wi. M, Davis, in the International Geography, p. 667. WBC. App, HA.
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