294 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
Whidby. He thought it to be impassable for large vessels, and probably from this circumstance 
Vancouver called it Deception Passage. But Mr. Ringgold, in the ship Porpoise, 1841, sailed 
through it, and proved it to be also passable for large vessels. There exists still, besides 
Deception Passage, another water branch leading out from the interior waters of Port Gardner 
and Possession sound, and connecting them with northern waters, Padilla and Bellingham bays. 
This passage, nameless on our charts, is long, very tortuous, very narrow, and so extremely 
shallow that it can only be used at high tide by boats. It separates, to a certain degree, 
Fidalgo island from the continent. Lieutenant Ringgold discovered and explored this passage, 
which the Indians had pointed out to him.* 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE DE HARO ARCHIPELAGO AND APPROACHES, BETWEEN 480 26’ AND 48° 46’ NORTH 
LATITUDE, AND 122° 45’ AND 123° 14’ WEST LONGITUDE. 
Between the southeastern part of Vancouver’s island on the west and the continental part 
of Washington Territory on the east lie numerous large and small islands which separate the 
eastern part of De Fuca strait from the southern part of the Gulf of Georgia, several straits 
and passages cut through these islands from the south to the north connecting the two great 
waters. 
The two broadest, most navigable, and important of these straits are the Canal de Haro 
on the west and the Rosario strait on the east. 
The principal direction of De Haro Canal is at first from De Fuca strait toward the N. NW.; 
then it turns in a semicircle to the NE. and E. Rosario strait, vice versa, runs at first N. NE., 
then N., and at last it turns to the NW., describing a semicircle, and mixing its waters with 
those of De Haro strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Georgia. 
So these straits may be said to describe a circle, and to enclose between them a group of . 
islands, which, upon the whole, constitute a circular archipelago. The greater number of these 
islands, and the largest of them, lie together in a somewhat compact group, but some of the 
smaller are detached from the main group. For the group itself we will adopt the name San 
Juan, or De Haro archipelago, the propriety of which name we will consider hereafter. 
The three principal parts of this whole locality we will consider in the following order, from 
west to east: 1. Canal De Haro; 2. The central group of islands; 3. Rosario strait. 
The Canal De Haro is a very broad and deep strait leading from De Fuca strait to the Gulf 
of Georgia. It begins to branch off at Gonzale Point, the southeast extremity of Vancouver’ s 
Island, at first ina N.NW. direction, and then describes a circuit to the east, with a length of 
about thirty miles, and an average width of seven to eight miles. 
In its southern part it has about the depth of De Fuca strait, from 60 to 100 and more 
fathoms, but in its northeastern half it shows the more moderate soundings of the southern 
part of the Gulf of Georgia, 30 to 40 fathoms, though occasionally here also very great depths 
oceur.t 
It is said that throughout the whole strait only one unseen and hidden danger exists, namely, 
a sunken rock, called Unit Rock, east of Darcy island, in 48° 34’ north latitude. 
The currents throughout the whole strait are very strong. | 
On the western side lie Vancouver’s island and many smaller islands and peninsulas, between 
which the strait branches out into several harbors, bays, inlets, 
and long passages, which, 
however, belong to the British dominions. 
The largest of the islands above mentioned is Saturna island, on the northwest, and the 
* Wilkes's E. E, vol. IV, page 482. 
+See reconnoissance of Canal De Haro and Strait of Rosario, Coast Survey Report of 1854. 
