272 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
circumference. It terminates to the east, in a narrow sand bank of about a mile in length, 
and not more than six feet broad. This sand bank rises from the water and forms the eastern 
extremity of the island. Thence the island rises gradually, and increases in breadth to the 
west; it attains, however, no greater altitude than fifty feet, with perpendicular bluffs of clay 
and gravel. Its surface is covered with a growth of bushes. 
A small part of the above-mentioned bank to the east of Smith’s island is always above 
water, and is called Minor island. At very low water both islands are connected. Between 
these islands, on the north side of the bank, good anchorage is found.* 
The kelp-field attached to Smith’s island on the west is the largest on De Fuca strait. It has 
a triangular form, with a pointed angle to the west of about four nautical miles in circum- 
ference, with average soundings of about from six to eight fathoms. Smith’s island lies exactly 
in the central line of De Fuca strait, and has always been considered a landmark for entering 
the strait. The Spanish officers of the Sutil and Mexicana, in the year 1792, mention it as such. 
It is now the site of a light-house erected by the United States government. 
The island was discovered by De Francisco Elisa in 1791, and named Islas de Bonilla, (Bonilla 
islands, ) after a certain Spanish officer, Antonio de Bonilla. 
Vancouver puts down the island without a name. Wilkes (1841) called it Blunt’s island, 
after Lieutenant Blunt, who surveyed it with him and discovered an extraordinary configuration 
of the island, which had not before been truly recognized. 
Smith’s island is probably a name introduced by the Hudson Bay Company. It is now in 
general use. A special survey of this island was made in 1853 by Lieutenant Commanding 
James Alden, United States Coast Survey, whose sketch of it was published in the Coast 
Survey Report of 1854. 
Upon the currents and wind of De Fuca strait few observations have been made. Wilkest 
says that the winds for a greater part of the year blow directly through the strait, and 
generally outward, and sometimes very violently. Lieutenant Wood, of the Pandora, says, 
on the contrary, that the prevailing winds of the strait are from the southwest, making the 
northern shore a lee shore. 
The tides of the strait seem to be affected by various causes, and are, consequently, subject 
to great irregularities. 
The shores of the strait in the western part are bolder than those in the eastern, and on the 
southern side the land rises higher than on the northern, where it ascends more gradually. 
In the eastern division of the strait are found numerous beautiful harbors, Mets are not so 
frequent in the western part and in the strait proper. Я 
It is not at all improbable that the entrance to this broad strait was seen by early aes 
of which we have lost the original historical accounts. That a certain Greek pilot, in the 
Spanish service, Juan de Fuca, (or Apostotos Belerianos,) entered a strait in about this latitude 
in the year 1592, was generally believed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and 
on nearly all the maps of that time, therefore, a strait was laid down between 459 and 48? north 
latitude. It was usually called by geographers De Fuca strait, or the supposed strait of Juan 
de Fuca. It was at one time supposed to be the same as the so-called Strait of Anian, which 
was supposed to be the western end of Hudson bay, and to open the passage to the North 
American continent. 
It is even possible that a navigator not only entered De Fuca strait, but also its southeastern 
® Coast Survey Report, 1855. + Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, vol. 4, p. 296. Nautical Magazine, 1851, p. 317. 
