Canada [antikvár]

BRITISH COLUMBIABritish Columbia is Canada's own Garden of Eden. All of the splendors of creation are to be found in this vast land that covers more than 350,000 square miles. Here, in Canada's most western province, mighty mountains, snow-capped and brooding, stand guard over paradise. Rivers, both furious and fanciful, roll through immense gorges and lush fertile valleys. British Columbia is racing cloud and teeming rain saturating the long winding coast, and bright sun mocking the thirsty plains of the interior. This is a land of contrasts: somber northern woods stretching for thousands of acres, and sensual, moss-hung rain forests dripping with voluptuous lushness; lazy, indolent beaches and tempestuous Pacific breakers,-smothering snowstorms and extravagant sunsets,- but it is the rainbows with their delicately tinted arches that best symbolize the peace and plentitude of this bountiful province.So overwhelming is nature's presence in B.C., that it seems almost to have dwarfed the two-and-one-half million people who call the province home. This does not bother British Columbians, but tourists often find beautiful British Columbia somewhat overwhelming. Many first-time visitors to the province have experienced the heady sensation of finding themselves in Vancouver, map in hand, simply unable to decide what to do next Should they head north to the Cariboo and gold rush country or east to the orchards and vineyards of the Okanagan? Tackle the wild white waters of the Fraser River or the steep mountain trails of lofty Mount Robson, at 12,972 feet the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies? Or perhaps explore cougar country in the ranching region of the interior?If you take the advice of most British Columbians, you will forget the mainland for a moment The best orientation to B.C. is time spent on Vancouver Island, that miniature of the mainland just a ferry ride away from thecity of Vancouver across the Strait of Georgia. The 300 mile length of Vancouver Island has something of everything that makes the province famous: mountains, valleys, rolling hills, rivers and lakes.It was the Spanish explorer Juan de Fuca who first sailed the waters of the Pacific in the vicinity of Vancouver Island in 1592. De Fuca mistook the strait that now bears his name for the mythical Strait of Ainam, a marvellous inland sea believed to link the Atlantic to the Pacific.Delusions concerning this northwest passage continued, inspiring both Britain's Sir Francis Drake, and the Danish explorer, Vitus Bering, in the employ of the Russians, to embark on further explorations in the region.On March 29,1778, Captain James Cook landed the Resolution and the Discovery at Nootka Sound, aboutVancouver these pages originated in the 1870s as a sawmilling settlement called Granville. It was renamed Vancouver alter Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy who had navigated the coast in 1792. The residential area alongside Kitsilano Beach is pictured left, while above is a view of the Grouse Mountain Sky Ride. An ocean liner leaves the port top, and two superb views of the city can be seen opposite page top and bottom.Overleaf A magnificent photograph of Vancouver's magical night-time skyline.