14 B 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Visit of Mr. 

 Richardson. 



Charts and 

 Plans. 



In 1872, Mr. James Richardson, of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 at the request of gentlemen interested in opening a coal mine at 

 Skidegate, spent nearly two weeks in that inlet. The account of his 

 investigations is published in the Report of Progress for 1872-73, and 

 the fossils collected by him form the subject of Mr. Whiteaves' memoir, 

 already referred to, of a short report by Mr. Billings*, and a note by 

 Principal Dawson f . 



The best chart which I was able to obtain of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands is that of the Admiralt} T , bearing corrections up to 1862, and 

 numbered 2430, on a scale of fifteen miles to one inch. This is said to 

 be based chiefly on Vancouver's survey of 1792, corrected by a Russian 

 chart of 1849, and by Mr. Inskip in 1854. It is nothing more than 

 a very rough sketch of the main outlines of the islands. A considerable 

 portion of the east coast is represented on the Admiraltj^ charts 

 1923 A. and 1923 B., published subsequent to December, 1874, but is 

 little altered from the last. Of Skidegate Inlet there is a nearly com- 

 plete and accurate plan (No. 48), on a scale of one mile to an inch. 

 There is also a sheet of plans of harbors (No. 2168), printed subsequent 

 to 1864, giving moderately correct sketches of Houston Stewart 

 Channel, Virago Sound, and the entrance to Masset Sound ; very 

 imperfect ones of Cumshewa Inlet and Parry Passage. A small book 

 of sailing directions for the islands, by G. Inskij), was also issued by 

 the Admiralty in 1853, but has apparently been recalled or allowed to 

 become out of print, as I have been unable to procure a copy. Some 

 directions for navigators are, however, to be found in Imray's North 

 Pacific Pilot, 1870, Vol. I.,, probably derived from the last mentioned 

 work. In giving a description of the islands, the east coast is followed 

 from the south northwards, and such notes as may be useful to vessels 

 visiting the coast, whether the result of personal observations or derived 

 from the Pilot, are inserted. 



General Description of the Islands. 



Southern ex- 

 tremity of the 

 Islands. 



The southern extremity of the land of the Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 is a chain of rocky islets and rocks called Isles Kerouart by La Perouse, 

 which runs off from Cape St. James three and a half miles, in a south- 

 south-easterly direction, corresponding with that of the mountainous 

 axis of the group. Sunken rocks must exist still further from the land 

 in the same line, as Vancouver notes that Gray, of the Columbia, stated 

 that his vessel struck and received some material damage, on a rock 

 lying at a much greater distance (Vol. IV. p. 287.) Dixon gives a fairly 



Report of Progress, 1872-73. p, 71. t Ibid, p. 66. 



