QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 41 B 



no shelter, consisting of several open bays with outlying rocks. Hippa weat Coaat. 



Island is said to be high and bold seaward, and the portion of the coast 



in its vicinity more broken than that to the north, and with deeper 



inlets and apparently fewer rocks lying off. A large high island is said 



to be situated on the north side of the entrance to Skidegate Channel, 



while another island, much smaller and peaked, stands out clear of the 



land at about three or four miles further northward. Kuper or 



Kennedy Island has a channel on each side leading into Mitchell or 



Gold Harbour. The north or Inskip Channel is eight and a half miles Inskip Channel 



long by about half a mile wide. A little without its entrance are some 



small islands, but no difficulty is found in discovering the passage in. 



No bottom was obtained in the channel at 60 fathoms, but a cast was 



obtained at the entrance at 35 fathoms on a halibut bank. On the north 



side, about three and a half miles up the channel is a deep opening, and 



where Inskip and Moore Channels meet are two additional openings to 



harbours, with some small islands lying near them. 



Moore Channel, on the south side of Kuper Island, was surveyed by Moore channel 

 H.M.S. Thetis in 1852, at the time that large numbers of adventurers 

 from California and elsewhere had collected in the vicinity in search of 

 gold. The channel is five miles long, by half a mile wide, with bold 

 high shores, covered with trees. jSTo bottom was obtained at Y0 fathoms 

 in mid-channel. On the north side, just without the entrance are some 

 small rocky islands named the Moresby Islands, and on the south side 

 a few rocks close inshore. Mitchell or Gold Harbour is about two and Gold Harbour-, 

 a half miles deep by half a mile wide, and is surrounded by precipi- 

 tous and densely wooded hills TOO to 800 feet in height. At its head is- 

 Thetis Cove, with a sandy beach and stream of water. At one and 

 three-quarter miles up is Sansum Island, with ruins of huts. The 

 anchorage lies inside this, in Thetis Cove. Keeping Sansum Island on 

 the port hand, the passage is a cable wide, with deep water. The cove 

 is quite land-locked, but squalls, with rain, come over the hills with 

 considerable violence. Half a mile from the mouth of the harbour, on 

 the starboard side going in, is Thorn Eock, with three feet at low water. 

 It lies about a cable-length from the shore, and on the opposite side, not 

 quite so far from the land, is a second rock. "With a fair wind, and the 

 ship kej)t in mid-channel, nothing is to be feared. One mile westward 

 of Mitchell Harbour, and on the same side of Moore Channel, is the 

 entrance to Douglas Harbour, which appears to be very similar to 

 Mitchell Harbour, and is separated from it only by the Josling 

 Peninsula. 



The land being very high on both sides of the channels leading into 

 these harbours, the wind is either right in or out : winds with any 

 westing blowing in, those north easting, out. A sailing vessel leaving 



