On the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound; and Government Improvements on the Pacific Coast

Abstract

In the year A. D. 1592 (according to the “Encyclopedia Britannica”), an old Greek pilot, in the service of Spain, discovered the straits of Juan de Fuca, so called after him. The “Chambers‘ Encyclopedia” makes a claim that it was visited by Captain Cook in the year 1778, but Kipps‘s “Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook,‘ shows that it was Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver‘s Island, that he visited. So we shall insist that “the old Greek pilot” has the honor of discovering one of the most wonderful inland seas on the surface of the globe, especially when its phenomena are taken into consideration.