*No. 54.

Commodore Case to the Secretary of the Navy.[67]

Sir: * * * * * * *

I was a Lieutenant on board of the sloop-of-war “Vincennes,” attached to the United States expedition commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, and one of the surveying party in July, 1841, which surveyed the canal de Haro, the main ship-channel for vessels bound from the sea northward inside of Vancouver’s Island, for the Strait of Georgia, Fraser’s River, &c.Statement of Commodore Case on the canal de Haro.

The canal is deep, clear, and navigable for vessels of all sizes or draught.

[Page 153]

While we were engaged in the survey of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and its adjacent waters, the only vessel then navigating them was the Hudson Bay Company’s steamer Beaver, which was employed by it supplying stores to, and collecting peltry from, its trading-ports on the coast, and which, I am of the opinion, used either the canal de Haro, or Straits of Rosario channels according as to where she was coming from and bound to.

When coming from the sea and bound north for the straits of Georgia, Fraser’s river, or any place inside of and adjacent to Vancouver’s Island, the main ship-channel is the Canal de Haro, it being the nearest and most direct. But when coasting along the main-land and bound north, from any of the ports in Puget’s sound, Hood’s canal, &c., for the strait of Georgia, Fraser’s River, &c., the straits of Rosario would be the nearest and most direct. * * * * * * *

H. LUDLOW CASE, U. S. N., Commodore and Chief of Bureau.