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:
“—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
At the North Pole. . .
And now what? Why, go back.
Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“Opinions are not to be learned by rote, like the letters of an alphabet, or the words of a dictionary. They are conclusions to be formed, and formed by each individual in the sacred and free citadel of the mind, and there enshrined beyond the arm of law to reach, or force to shake; ay! and beyond the right of impertinent curiosity to violate, or presumptuous arrogance to threaten.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)