JUAN DE FUCA, a celebrated strait on the north-west coast of America, was surveyed by Captain Vancouver in the Discovery sloop of war, with a view to ascertain whether it leads to any communication between the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans. As they advanced within the opening of the strait, their progress was greatly retarded by the number of inlets into which the entrance branched in every direction; and most of these were examined by the boats, which were frequently absent from the ships on this service for several days together. In the midst of their labours, they were surprised by the sight of two Spanish vessels of war, employed, like themselves, in surveying this inlet, the examination of which had been begun by them in the preceding year. Measures of mutual assistance were concerted between the captains of the two nations for the prosecution of the survey, in which each agreed to communicate to the other their discoveries. Not one of the many arms of the inlet, nor of the channels which they explored in this broken part of the coast, was found to extend more than 100 miles to the eastward of the entrance into the strait. After having surveyed the southern coast, on which side a termination was discovered to every opening, by following the continued line of the shore, they were led to the northward, and afterward towards the north-west, till they came into the open sea through a different channel from the strait of Juan de Fuca, by which they had commenced this inland navigation. Thus it appeared, that the land forming the north side of that strait is part of an island, or of an archipelago, extending nearly 100 leagues in length from S. E. to N. W.; and on the side of this land most distant from the continent is situated Nootka Sound. The most peculiar circumstance of this navigation is the extreme depth of water, when contrasted with the narrowness of the channels. The vessels were sometimes drifted about by the currents during the whole of a night, close to the rocks, without knowing how to help themselves, on account of the darkness, and the depth being much too great to afford them anchorage. In the course of this survey, the voyagers had frequent communications with the natives, whom they met sometimes in canoes and sometimes at their villages. In their transactions with Europeans, they are described as "well versed in the principles of trade, which they carried on in a very fair and honourable manner." In other respects they were less honest. At one village 200 sea otter skins were purchased of them by the crews of the vessels in the course of a day; and they had many more to sell in the same place, as also skins of bears, deer, and other animals. One party of Indians whom they met had the skin of a young lioness; and these spoke a language different from that used in Nootka Sound. Venison was sometimes brought for sale; and a piece of copper, not more than a foot square, purchased one whole deer and part of another. Among other articles of traffic, two children, six or seven years of age, were offered for sale. The commodities most prized by the natives were fire-arms, copper, and great coats. Beads and trinkets they would only receive as presents, and not as articles of exchange. Many of them were possessed of fire-arms. In one part it is related, that after a chief had received some presents, "he, with most of his companions, returned to the shore; and, on landing, fired several muskets, to shew, in all probability, with what dexterity they could use these weapons, to which they seemed as familiarized as if they had been accustomed to fire-arms from their earliest infancy." The dresses of these people, besides skins, are a kind of woollen garments; the materials composing which are explained in the following extract: "The dogs belonging to this tribe of Indians were numerous, and much resembled those of Pomerania, though, in general, somewhat larger. They were all shorn as close to the skin as sheep are in England; and so compact were their fleeces, that large portions could be lifted up by a corner without causing any separation. They were composed of a mixture of a coarse kind of wool, with very fine long hair, capable of being spun into yarn. This gave Captain Vancouver reason to believe, that their woollen clothing might in part be composed of this material mixed with a finer kind of wool from some other animal, as their garments were all too fine to be manufactured from the coarse coating of the dog alone." Of other animals alive, deer only were seen in any abundance by our people. The number of inhabitants computed to be in the largest of the villages or towns that were discovered, did not exceed 600. Captain Vancouver conjectured the small-pox to be a disease common and very fatal among them. Many were much marked; and most of these had lost their right eye. Their method of disposing of their dead is very singular. "Baskets were found suspended on high trees, each containing the skeleton of a young child; in some of which were also small square boxes filled with a kind of white paste, resembling (says our author) such as I had seen the natives eat, supposed to be made of the sarran root; some of these boxes were quite full, others were nearly empty, eaten probably by the mice, squirrels, or birds. On the next low point south of our encampment, where the gunners were airing the powder, they met with several holes in which human bodies were interred, slightly covered over, and in different states of decay, some appearing to have been very recently deposited. About half a mile to the northward of our tents, where the land is nearly level with high water mark, a few paces within the skirting of the wood, a canoe was found suspended between two trees, in which were three human skeletons. "On each point of the harbour, which, in honour of a particular friend, I called Penn's Cove, was a deserted village; in one of which were found several sepulchres, formed exactly like a centry box. Some of them were open, and contained the skeletons of many young children tied up in baskets: the smaller bones of adults were likewise noticed, but not one of the limb bones could here be found; which gave rise to an opinion, that these, by the living inhabitants of the neighbourhood, were appropriated to useful purposes; such as pointing their arrows, spears, or other weapons." However honourably these people have been represented in their conduct as traders, it appeared on several occasions that it was unsafe to depend on their goodwill alone: and some instances occurred, of their making every preparation for an attack, from which they desisted only on being doubtful of the event; yet immediately on relinquishing their purpose, they would come with the greatest confidence to trade, appearing perfectly regardless of what had before been in agitation. The boats, as already noticed, were frequently at a great distance from the ships; and on such occasions, when large parties of Indians have first seen them, they generally held long conferences among themselves before they approached the boats; probably for the purpose of determining the mode of conduct which they judged it most prudent to observe. Captain Vancouver places the entrance of the strait of Juan de Fuca in 48° 20' N. Lat. and 124° W. Long.