Official Report of the Exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands for the Government of British Columbia
Chittenden, Newton H. (Newton Henry), 1840-1925
English
We will print you a perfectly bound paperback of your selected title and send it to you at your nominated address
Below is a summary of Official Report of the Exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands for the Government of British Columbia
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
This file was produced from images generously made available by the
Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE EXPLORATION
OF THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
BY
NEWTON H CHITTENDEN
_Hon. Wm. Smithe,
Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works,
of the Province of British Columbia:
Sir:
I have the honor to submit herewith my report of
the exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands, made
under your direction, for the Government of British
Columbia.
Very Respectfully,
Your Obedient Servant,
Newton H. Chittenden.
Victoria, B.C., Nov., 1884._
Geographical Position and Extent.
The Queen Charlotte Islands, the extreme north-western lands of
British Columbia, lie in the Pacific Ocean, between fifty-one and
fifty-five degrees of north latitude. They comprise over 150 islands,
and islets, their length being 156 miles, and greatest width fifty-two
miles. Provost, Moresby Graham and North Islands, extending
north-westerly in the order mentioned, twelve, seventy-two,
sixty-seven and five miles respectively, constitute over eighty per
cent, of their entire area. Dixon Entrance on the north, with an
average width of thirty-three miles, separates Graham Island from the
Prince of Wales group of Alaska. Queen Charlotte Sound, from thirty to
eighty miles in width, lies between them and the mainland of the
Province. The nearest land is Stephen's Island, thirty-five miles east
of Rose Spit Point, the extreme north-eastern part of Graham Island,
and also of the whole group. Cape St. James, their most southern
point, is one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Cape Scott, the
northernmost land of Vancouver Island.
* * * * *
Discovery and Exploration,
The Queen Charlotte Islands were first discovered by Juan Perez, a
Spanish navigator, on the 18th of July, 1774, and named by him, Cabo
De St. Margarita, and their highest mountains, Sierra de San
Cristoval.
La Perouse coasted along their shores in 1786, and first determined
their entire separation from the mainland. In 1787, Captain Dixon
sailed off and on their north-west shores, with his vessel, the Queen
Charlotte, naming the group, also North Island, Cloak Bay, Parry
Passage, Hippa Island, Rennell Sound, Cape St. James, and Ibbitson's
Sound, now known as Houston Stewart Channel. The first white men known
to have landed upon the islands, were a portion of the crew of the
_Iphigenia_, under command of Captain William Douglass, who remained
about a week in Parry Passage in 1788, trading with the natives. The
most extensive explorations made of any portion of the islands, by
those early navigators, whose voyages for purposes of discovery, trade
and adventure, extended into these northern seas, were those of
Captain Etienne Marchand in the French ship _Solide_, who in 1791,
examined the shores bordering on Parry Passage, and also about twenty
miles of the west coast of Graham Island, from near Frederick Island
southward. Since that date, although several parties of prospectors
and others have visited various parts of the islands, no systematic
effort has hitherto been made for the exploration of the entire group.
Under the direction of the Dominion Government, the waters and shores
of the north and east coast of the islands including those of Massett
Inlet and Sound, Naden Harbor and Skidegate Inlet, have been partially
examined, and mapped with considerable accuracy; but almost the entire
Back