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.
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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 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
west coast, so far as the number, extent and character of its numerous
indentations are concerned, has hitherto remained a _terra
incognita_. Judge James G. Swan, who, under the direction of the
U. S. Government, visited the islands in 1883, and voyaged in a canoe
from Massett to Skidegate, gave in a lecture before the Provincial
Legislature of British Columbia, the first public confirmation of the
entrances to the inlets and harbors on the west coast of Graham
Island, approximately, as reported by Captain Marchand.
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