292 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
entrance to them. Vancouver sent out for their exploration from his central station in Admi- 
ralty Inlet at Restoration Point. 
Lieutenant Broughton, in the vessel Chatham, and Mr. Whidby, in a boat, both sailed from 
there on the 28th of May, 1792,* and entered Possession sound on the same day. Broughton, in 
the Chatham, surveyed the eastern side of the entrance and Gedney’s island, + and Whidby, 
in his launch, explored as well Port Susan, which he thought to be closed, as Port Gardner 
and Penn’s cove, and he proceeded as far north as Deception Passage, which he believed to 
be not navigable for vessels of any burden, in consequence of the rocks and overfalls, and of 
а very irregular and disagreeable tide. { 
He returned from there to the south to the entrance of Possession sound, where he found 
Broughton, in the Chatham, and also Vancouver, in the Discovery, who, in the meanwhile, had 
followed his officers. 
On this the whole exploring expedition left Possession sound on the 5th of J une, and leaving 
Admiralty sound sailed to other regions. 
The movements of Wilkes, in 1841, were similar to those of Vancouver. He sent his second 
ship, the Porpoise, under Lieutenant Ringgold, to Possession sound. Ringgold surveyed the 
same ground which had been explored by Broughton and Whidby, and completed, in some 
respects, their discoveries. 
In later years these waters have been explored by the Hudson Bay Company, and by the 
officers of the United States Coast Survey. 
The several parts of which they are composed are the following: 
Possession sound proper runs up from Admiralty sound to the north, and conducts to the 
interior parts of these waters. It is at first only two miles broad, but ends in a basin which 
is nearly five miles in width. In the midst of the northern part lies a little island, Gedney’s 
island, and towards the east the sound has a prolongation into which the river Snoqualmoo 
empties. Possession sound may be said to terminate in the north at Point Allan, where it 
Separates into two other branches. The sound received its name by Vancouver, from the 
circumstance that he, on the 4th of June, the anniversary of the King of England’s birth, 
here took formal possession of all the regions around De Fuca strait and Admiralty Inlet, and 
distributed, at the same time, different geographical names.§ 
Gedney’s island is a small island, five miles in circumference, in the centre of the northern 
part of Possession sound proper. It was left nameless by Vancouver, and Wilkes gave to it 
the name of one of his friends, Mr. Gedney. | 
Port Susan is a long basin which branches out from the eastern part of Possession sound 
to the north-northwest. It is about ten miles long, and from three to four miles broad. It has 
a depth of from forty to fifty fathoms in mid-channel, which, however, decreases in the northern 
part. It was first explored by Whidby, Broughton, and Vancouver, thought to be perfectly 
closed, and called Port Susan. { 
Wilkes represents it in his charts as closed. Іп later years only that channel has been dis- 
covered which conducts out from it to the north, into the waters north of Caamano island. 
© Vancouver, vol. I, pp. 267 and 275. | f Idem, p. 280. Idem, vol. I, p. 287. 
$ Vancouver, vol. I, p. 289. He does not exactly state the locality of this ceremony. 
|| Verbal information. 
Т Vancouver, vol. I, р. 289, does not say why he called it so. 
