Coordinates: 52°19′40″N 126°58′06″W / 52.3278°N 126.9683°W / 52.3278; -126.9683 North Bentinck Arm is short inlet about 17 km (10.6 mi) in length in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a sidewater of Burke Channel and is linked via that waterway and Labouchere Channel to Dean Channel, which is one of the largest inlets of the BC Coast.
A spot on North Bentinck Arm is historically significant as the location where Hudson's Bay Company explorer Alexander MacKenzie reached the waters of the Pacific Ocean overland from Rupert's Land. A boulder on the shoreline is marked with "Alexander MacKenzie, from Canada by land, 1793". By only a few weeks MacKenzie missed meeting James Johnstone, one of Captain George Vancouver's men, who also visited North Bentinck Arm that year.
The inlet is the territory of the Nuxalk Nation, whose main community adjoins the town of Bella Coola, which is at the head of the inlet. The Nuxalk are also known as the Bella Coola people.
Famous quotes containing the words north and/or arm:
“Ah, how shall you know the dreary sorrow at the North Gate,
With Li Po’s name forgotten,
And we guardsmen fed to the tigers.”
—Li Po (701–762)
“Innings and afternoons. Fly lost in sunset.
Throwing arm gone bad. There’s your old ball game.
Cool reek of the field. Reek of companions.”
—Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)