Official report of the exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands | Page 2

concerned, has hitherto remained a terra
incognita. Judge James G. Swan, who, under the direction of the U. S.
Government, visited the islands in 1883, and voyaged in a canoe from
Massett to Skidegate, gave in a lecture before the Provincial Legislature
of British Columbia, the first public confirmation of the entrances to
the inlets and harbors on the west coast of Graham Island,
approximately, as reported by Captain Marchand.

* * * * *
General Physical Features
High steep mountains, dense and almost unbroken forests, islands and
islets in great number and water-ways most wonderful, extend for a
thousand miles along this north-west coast "Only mountains, forests
and water," replied an Indian, of whom I made inquiries concerning
this region. The Queen Charlotte Islands, in common with all those
lying off the north-west coast of the continent, are evidently the
mountain tops of a submerged land, separated from it by a mighty
volcanic upheaval followed by the sinking of the earth's surface, and
the inflowing of the waters of the ocean, forming the most remarkable
labyrinth of inlets, sounds, straits, channels and passages on the face of
the globe. A continuous range of mountains from 600 to 5,000 feet in
height, extends the entire length of the islands nearest their western
coast, reaching their maximum elevations on Moresby Island, between
Darwin Sound, and the head of Cumshewa Inlet. These are clothed with
an evergreen forest of spruce, hemlock and cedar from near their
summits down to the coast, with the exception of the comparatively
small areas, as hereafter specified. The shores of the islands from
Cumshewa Inlet southward to Cape St. James, and from thence
northward around the west and north coast to Massett, are uniformly
rock-bound, containing however, many stretches of fine, sandy, or
gravelly beaches. From Massett to Dead Tree Point, Moresby Island, a
distance by the coast line of about seventy-five miles, a magnificent
broad beach of white sand, extends the greater portion of the way. The
shores of Naden Harbor and Skidegate Inlet and channel are also
generally low and sandy. With the exception of the north and eastern
portion of Graham Island, the base of the mountains reaching down to
the sea, with only occasional narrow benches and gradual foot-hill
slopes. The highest elevations on the immediate coast, from North
Island east and southward to Cumshewa Inlet, Klas-kwun Point, Tow
Hill and Cape Ball of Moresby Island, do not exceed four hundred feet.
From thence to Cape St. James, there are several bold, rocky bluffs,
from three to eight hundred feet in height, but along the west side of
Moresby Island, between Henry Bay and Gold Harbor, the mountains

present, for considerable distances, an almost perpendicular front of
from one to two-thousand five hundred feet in height, and in many
places the mountains bordering the inlets to the northward, are almost
equally high and precipitous.
* * * * *
Passages, Inlets and Channels.
The principal islands of the group, as mentioned, are separated by
narrow water-ways, admitting the passage of the largest ships through
them, with the exception of the narrows of Skidegate Channel and Inlet,
navigable only for small vessels at flood tide. These are Parry Passage,
between North and Graham Islands, a mile-and-a-half in width, and
two miles-and-a-half in length, Skidegate Inlet and Channel separating
Graham from Moresby Island, together thirty-five miles in length, and
from 250 feet to seven miles in width, and Stewart Houston Channel
twelve miles long, with an average breadth of a mile and-a-half,
between Moresby and Provost Island. We also found a short canoe
passage between the latter island and Cape St. James. Besides these sea
channels extending across the group, there are twenty inlets from three
to fifteen miles in depth, generally running in an easterly and westerly
direction, and reaching to the base of the high mountains described.
These numerous inlets, with the bays therein embraced, leave but a
skeleton land of Moresby Island and the south-western portion of
Graham. Massett Inlet, the deepest indentation in the archipelago,
penetrates the latter island for eighteen miles, and then expands into an
open sea nearly twenty miles in length and over six miles in width.
* * * * *
Bays, Harbors and Sounds.
The waters surrounding these islands embrace numerous bays, harbors
and sounds, of which Cloak Bay, North Island, Virago Sound, Naden
and Massett Harbors of Graham Island, Darwin and Juan Perez Sounds,
Laskeek, Sedgwick, Henry and Robson Bays, Gold Harbor of Moresby
Island, Cartwright and Rennell Sounds, and the excellent harbors

afforded by Kio-Kath-li, Skaloo, Athlow, and Seal Inlets on the west
coast of Graham are the most important. There are no harbors, except
for small boats, between Massett and Skidegate Inlets by the east coast.
* * * * *
Islands.
Of the great number