broad, deep inlet of the eastern North Pacific indenting west-central British Columbia, Canada. Bounded on the north by the Queen Charlotte Islands and on the south by Vancouver Island, the sound feeds into a series of straits that once were avenues followed by the continental glaciers as they pushed out to sea. To the north lies Hecate Strait. To the south the sound tapers to Queen Charlotte Strait, a passage 60 miles (100 km) long by 16 miles (26 km) wide threading between Vancouver Island and the mainland to the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound. These interlocking channels constitute a portion of the Inside Passage from Washington state to Alaska. The sound is bared to the open ocean on the west, while its eastern border is a complex of islands, inlets, and fjords, some of which penetrate far inland.