10 B GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Views publish- Queen Charlotte Islands. Many interesting details concerning the- 

 y ixon. inhabitants are given, and though the map accompanying his volume 

 is rough, his numerous bearings have been of essential value in fixing 

 the position on the chart of the yet unsurveyed west coast. He also 

 gives a view of Hippa Island (p. 205), sketches of Cape St. James and 

 the island now called Frederick Island (p. 214), an excellent plate of a 

 Haida woman with labret (p. 220), and illustrations of a wooden dish, 

 labret and spoon (pp. 188, 208). On the 2nd of July he attempted to^ 

 enter Cloak Bay and Parry Passage, between North and Graham 

 Islands, but was prevented from doing so by the strength of the tide. 

 Captain Dixon subsequently sailed southward along the whole west 

 coast, coming in with the land by day and standing off at night. On 

 July 25th (St. James' Day) he rounded the south point, with the 



Land proved to intention of circumnavigating the islands, but owing to light variable 

 winds, turned back, after having cruised northward on the east coast tO' 

 a latitude given as 52° 59', but which may probably have been about 

 half-way between Cumshewa and Skidegate Inlets.* In this position, 

 high land was in view to the north-west, nearly 30 leagues distant, which 

 was identified as that seen when near the north end of the islands,, 

 proving to Dixon's satisfaction that the land he had been coasting 

 along for nearly a month was a group of islands. Dixon surmised 

 that the land was not continuous from meeting some of the same people 

 on both sides. During this visit to the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1821 

 sea otter skins were purchased, which at the prices then current in Can- 

 ton must have been worth about $90,000. Dixon met, on his return, off 



Coinettand the entrance to Nootka, Captains Colnett and Duncan, in the Prince of 

 Wales and Princess Royal, 'which had been fitted out in London 

 by the same company of adventurers that Dixon himself was connected 

 with. On August 9th, 1787, they parted company, Dixon steering for 

 the Sandwich Islands, Colnett and Duncan for the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands. In 1788, Duncan sailed through the strait between the islands 

 and the mainland, which we do not know to have been done previously. 

 He also named the Fleurieu Islands (of La Perouse) the Princess 

 Royal Islands, after his vessel. In August of the same year, Captain 



Douglas Douglas, in the Iphige?iia, fitted out in China, coasted along part of the 



north shore of the islands, rounding Rose Point, and naming it. He 

 then sailed southward, between the islands and mainland. In 1789, 



Gray. Captain Robert Cray, of the sloop Washington, of Boston, visited 



the east coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands. He appears to have 

 left ]STootka for the north in April. Gray called the islands Washington 



* There is some uncertainty in Dixon's latitudes about the south part of the islands. The 

 latitude given would place him opposite Cumshewa Inlet; the position assigned is obtained by 

 adding 10', this being the correction found necessary by Vancouver for Dixon's position of Cape 

 St. James. (Vancouver, Vol. IV., p. 287). 



