waters of Jervis Inlet, Howe Sound and Burrard Inlet,
the latter being the entrance to the harbour of Van-
couver, Canada’s year-round gateway to the Orient.

For the next two years, Capt. Vancouver continued
his survey along the coast of the Mainland and the
Queen Charlotte Islands, right up to Alaska, when,
not having heard of any further orders, returned to
England, where he died at the early age of forty,
after practically completing an exhaustive account
of his voyages and explorations to British Columbia.

And today, British Columbia pays homage to its
founder and navigator, and every year places a
wreath on his grave in the Petersham churchyard in
Surrey, England, as a token of respect for his faithful
work in exploring the coastline of British Columbia.

Hitherto, all the exploratory work had commenced
from the West, so it behooved three of the fur trading
bourgeois to attempt an overland crossing to the
coast. One of these men, Alexander Mackenzie,—
who earlier traced the river bearing his name from
the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean—left Fort
Chippewyan on Lake Athabasca, endeavouring to
trace a path to the coast, which he successfully
accomplished by traversing the Peace and north arm
of the Fraser rivers, down the Bella Coola river to
salt water. Since Mackenzie’s epochal journey, the

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