28    TFROM MILBANK SOUND TO DIXON ENTIRANO0.
The mountains rise more abruptly, granite cliffs tower perpendicularly, their front glistening with glacier polish and latticed over with fine cascades; more waterfalls and land-slides are reflected in the glassy reaches; great alcoves on the heights betray the hidden lakes, and side cafions, lesser Yosemites, lead away into the wilderness of Princess Royal Island. In McKay Reach and Wright Sound there is no bottom at 225 fathoms.
At Wright Sound submerged peaks stand as islands; six diverging channels open, and the tourist with an Admiralty Chart is as puzzled as were Caamano and Vancouver a century ago, to know which way leads on or out to the ocean.
Gardner Canal or Inlet.
Ursula and Devastation Channels, behind Gribbel Island, lead to the grand canal which Vancouver named for Vice-Admiral Sir Alan Gardner, who recommended that Vancouver be given charge of the expedition to Nootka and the Northwest Coast. Whidbey explored it in that summer of 1793, and reported that it was "almost an entirely barren waste, nearly destitute of wood and verdure, and presenting to the eye one rude mass of almost naked rocks, rising into rugged mountains, more lofty than any he had before seen, whose towering summits seeming to overhang their bases gave them a tremendous appearance. The whole was covered with perpetual ice and snow that reached, in the gullies formed between the mountains, close down to the highwater mark, and many waterfalls of various dimensions were seen to descend in every direction "-a description that might as coldly describe the Sogne Fiord, the Naerodal, the Yosemite, or any other rival canion's walls. But Mr. Whidbey went the 50 miles of its length, " where it terminated, as usual," and the explorer gave up getting into Hudson Bay by that route.
Tourists consider the Gardner Canal, or Kitlup Canon, the culmination of the scenery of the British Columbian coast, as it cleaves its narrowing way for 50 miles between gloomy walls, to where a great mountain blocks the end, with glaciers resting on its sides, cascades foaming down to join the sea, and cannery buildings dwarfed to toys at its base.
The Old Man, a conspicuous landmark on the cation walls, rises perpendicularly 2,000 ft. from the water, and soundings at its baseline give a depth of over 1,400 ft. The Islander has been laid alongside, and passengers have gathered ferns from the seamed and overhanging wall. Irving Falls, on the opposite wall, descend 2,000 ft. by successive leaps, and there is a fine frothy fall draining the glacier