GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 299 
ROSARIO STRAIT. 
Rosario strait is, after Canal de Haro, the longest, broadest, and deepest channel between 
De Fuca strait and the Gulf of Georgia; but, for discovery and navigation, it has always been 
the very first and the most used of all the straits, which preference it owes to its geographical 
position. Vessels which enter De Fuca strait and proceed to the west find some difficulty in 
sailing round the pointed extremity of Vancouvei's island, and turning into the abruptly 
changing direction of De Haro Canal, whilst Rosario strait, into which De Fuca strait trends 
by degrees to the northeast and north, receives them easily, and admits them with the same 
winds with which they sailed through De Fuca strait; for the Rosario strait is the direct 
prolongation of the navigation of Admiralty Inlet, and vessels which proceed from there to the 
Gulf of Georgia will naturally prefer the passage through it to the passage through De Haro 
Canal. Rosario strait has here about the same position and value with respect to De Haro 
Canal, as, in a similar European archipelago, (that of the Danish islands,) the sound has to the 
so-called Little and Great Belt. 
Rosario strait begins in the south, between Colville Point (east extremity of Lopez island) 
and Deception Passage, and runs directly north about twenty nautical miles, where it ends 
between Point Thompson (north extremity of Orcas island) and the northern point of Lummi 
island. It has throughout a smaller depth than De Haro Canal, generally 30 to 50 fathoms, 
and at a few places 60. 
Its currents are not quite so strong as those of Canal de Haro. Its western shore is formed 
by the chain of islands named Lopez, Decatur, Blakely, Obstruction, and Orcas. Its eastern 
shore is formed by another chain of islands, of which we will speak presently. This сапа was 
for the first time passed (1791) by Don Francisco Elisa, and called Canal de Fidalgo, (Fidalgo’s 
Canal,) in honor of a well-known Spanish officer of that time. Hun d.d 
Vancouver, who passed it after Elisa, (1192,) gave no par ticular name to it, either in his report 
or in his charts. The passage retained the name Canal de Fidalgo on the Spanish Admiralty 
charts. Wilkes named it Ringgold’s channel, in honor of Lieutenant Ringgold, who surveyed 
it on his passage from Admiralty Inlet to the Gulf of Georgia; On the English Admiralty 
charts, after Kellet, (1847,) it is called Rosario strait, whith name was first given by the 
Spaniards to the Gulf of Georgia, and is now confined to this small strait. Very probably the 
name was applied to this strait by the Hudson Bay Company, perhaps by Dr. McLaughlin. 
It appears now to have been generally adopted. 
THE COAST ISLANDS, AND WATERS BETWEEN DECEPTION PASSAGE AND THE BRITISH AMERICAN BOUNDARY 
LINE, BETWEEN 48? 32' AND 492 NORTH LATITUDE. 
general trending of the coast is from S.SE. towards the N.NW. 
from this direction, caused by many small and large 
ds nor the coast itself are very elevated, and 
the mouth of Fraser's river the country 
From Deception Passage the 
But there are many irregular deviations 
islands, bays, and peninsulas. Neither the islan 
the elevation diminishes towards the north. Towards 
presents a flat, low, and sandy delta. 
It is the lowest land connected with the western 
This whole section may be subdivided into— 
First. The islands and bays along Rosario Strait. 
Second. The bays and peninsulas along the Gulf of Georgia. 
base of the Cascade range. 
