284 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
not very deep and projecting, and they therefore have received no particular names by the 
great navigators and surveyors on their charts, though they have local names. 
From this the only exceptions are made by Admiralty Head and Ariel’s Point. Admiralty 
Head is a very marked headland of Whidby’s island to the east of Wilson Point. It re- 
ceived its name of modern origin, probably from its vicinity to the entrance of Admiralty 
Inlet, and it may be called the interior entrance point of this inlet, whilst Partridge Point, on 
the same side, may be considered to be the exterior entrance cape. 
Ariel’s Point is the southern end of the east coast of this basin. Vancouver had no name 
for it. 2 
SUQUAMISH HEAD 
marks the southern entrance of this basin, and is the point where Admiralty Entrance begins 
to separate into two branches. It forms a high, perpendicular bluff, which terminates towards 
the north in what is usually called the great peninsula, and which divides Hood's Canal from 
Admiralty Inlet. This point was named by Vancouver Foulweather Bluff because he experi- 
enced there a disagreeable change of weather. Its present Indian name may have been given 
to it by the Hudson Bay Company. 
Hood's Canal forms a very curiously-shaped sound, which branches off from Admiralty 
Entrance towards the southwest, between Port Ludlow and Suquamish Point. Its main body 
runs directly from the northeast to the southwest, with a length of about forty nautical miles, 
and a width of from one to two miles. 
In the midst of its length a smaller inlet branches out to the north, and in its southern part 
suddenly turns around to the east and northeast under a very pointed angle, and finally ends in 
a long and narrow appendage. 
Hood's Canal is throughout very deep, 50 to 60 fathoms in mid-channel, but in its eastern 
appendage it shoals from 30 to 5 fathoms. A strong tide runs up and down in the channel, the 
water of which rises to 10 feet.* The shores are alternately composed of sandy or rocky cliffs, 
falling abruptly into the sea or terminating on a beach, whilst in some places the even land 
extends from the water side with little or no elevation.t The banks on both sides are formed 
of stratified clay, and do not exceed 100 feet in height. 
The whole country surrounding this branch is less attractive and diversified, and of a more 
uniform appearance, than that on the other parts of Admiralty Inlet. 
Vancouver discovered and explored this canal in its principal parts, in a boat expedition, from 
the 10th to the 14th of May, 1792. He gave to it the name Hood's Canal, after Lord Hood, 
one of the lords of the English admiralty who signed his instructions. 
It was again surveyed during the latter part of June, 1841, by a boat expedition commanded 
by Lieutenant Case, sent out by Wilkes from Nisqually. Case discovered parts of the bay 
which had been overlooked by Vancouver. 
The principal points, capes, and divisions of the canal are the following : ; 
Port Gamble is a little basin attached to Hood’s Canal, on the eastern side, not far from the 
eastern entrance. It has a very regular, oval shape, with a narrow entrance with soundings of 
from 5 to 7 fathoms. It is indicated on Vancouver's charts, though without a name. Wilkes 
named it after Mr. Gamble, a United States naval officer in the war of 1813.8 In the year 
© Vancouver, vol. 1, p. 243. f Vancouver, vol. 1, p. 238. i Wilkes. $ Verbal information. 
