Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, Arno Peters
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This filewas produced from images generously made available by theCanadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
_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 ofthe exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands, madeunder your direction, for the Government of BritishColumbia.
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 ofBritish Columbia, lie in the Pacific Ocean, between fifty-one andfifty-five degrees of north latitude. They comprise over 150 islands,and islets, their length being 156 miles, and greatest width fifty-twomiles. Provost, Moresby Graham and North Islands, extendingnorth-westerly in the order mentioned, twelve, seventy-two,sixty-seven and five miles respectively, constitute over eighty percent, of their entire area. Dixon Entrance on the north, with anaverage width of thirty-three miles, separates Graham Island from thePrince of Wales group of Alaska. Queen Charlotte Sound, from thirty toeighty miles in width, lies between them and the mainland of theProvince. The nearest land is Stephen's Island, thirty-five miles eastof Rose Spit Point, the extreme north-eastern part of Graham Island,and also of the whole group. Cape St. James, their most southernpoint, is one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Cape Scott, thenorthernmost land of Vancouver Island.
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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 determinedtheir entire separation from the mainland. In 1787, Captain Dixonsailed off and on their north-west shores, with his vessel, the QueenCharlotte, naming the group, also North Island, Cloak Bay, ParryPassage, Hippa Island, Rennell Sound, Cape St. James, and Ibbitson'sSound, now known as Houston Stewart Channel. The first white men knownto have landed upon the islands, were a portion of the crew of theIphigenia, under command of Captain William Douglass, who remainedabout a week in Parry Passage in 1788, trading with the natives. Themost extensive explorations made of any portion of the islands, bythose early navigators, whose voyages for purposes of discovery, tradeand adventure, extended into these northern seas, were those ofCaptain Etienne Marchand in the French ship Solide, who in 1791,examined the shores bordering on Parry Passage, and also about twentymiles of the west coast of Graham Island, from near Frederick Islandsouthward. Since that date, although several parties of prospectorsand others have visited various parts of the islands, no systematiceffort has hitherto been made for the ex