Jan., 1912 
1,5 
A VISIT TO NOOTKA SOUND 
By II. S. SWARTH 
WITH FOUR PHOTOS BY THK AUTHOR 
S OMEWHAT over a hundred years ago, in the latter part of the eighteenth, 
and early in the nineteenth century, there were many visitors to this port 
who recorded their observations in print, it being at that time the objective 
point of the fur traders, while to government expeditions it was the one, almost the 
only, well known locality that could serve as a base of operations in the exploration 
of the dangerous and almost unknown northwest coast. Beginning with Captain 
Cook’s “Voyages”, there followed in rapid succession the narratives of Meares, 
Vancouver, Quadra, La Perouse, Cleveland, and others — English, Spanish, French 
and American, private adventurers and government officials, nearly all of whom gave 
more or less elaborate descriptive accounts of Nootka Sound, its inhabitants and 
resources. 
With the decline of the fur trade, and the settlement of various international 
disputes centering about the place, as well as the discovery and exploitation of vast- 
Fig. 8. THE VILLAGE OF FRIENDLY COVE, NOOTKA SOUND; AUGUST 6, 1910 
ly more promising regions elsewhere on the Pacific, Nootka lost its place in public 
interest, and, out of the track of civilization, it has for many years been little more 
than a name, of interest to the historian, but otherwise almost forgotten. 
The writer had occasion to visit the place in the summer of 1910, in pursuance 
of the work of zoological exploration being conducted upon Vancouver Island by 
the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Our party was at this 
time reduced to two, Mr. E. Despard and myself, and it was with rather mixed 
feelings that we prepared for this trip, for many were the pessimistic tales we had 
heard as to physical conditions on the west coast, the drawbacks of canoe travel, 
and the impossibility of travel by land. Hence, though eagerly anticipating the op- 
portunity of visiting this historic spot, we had some misgivings as to the probable 
success of the trip, measured by numbers of specimens secured. 
A coasting steamer, the Tees, making monthly trips from Victoria up the 
west side of Vancouver Island, was boarded by us at Port Alberni, July 22. In an 
