Barkley Sound
Coordinates: 48 ° 54 ′ 9 ″ N , 125 ° 19 ′ 41 ″ W.
The Barkley Sound is a 800 km² bay on the west coast of Canada's island Vancouver Iceland . It is south of Ucluelet and north of Bamfield . There are several hundred small islands in the bay in two groups called Broken Group Islands and Deer Islands . These islands cover only 13.5 km² of solid land. The largest islands are Effingham, Turret, Turtle, Dudd, Jacques, Nettle and Gibraltar Island . Together with the West Coast Trail and the Long Beach Unit , the Broken Group Islands form one of the three major sections of the Pacific Rim National Park . On early English nautical charts the sound was also called Barcley Sound , but this is just a transmission error.
Surname
The name comes from Captain Charles William Barkley , who commanded the Imperial Eagle , a British ship under the Austrian flag, in the waters of Vancouver Island in 1787 . Barkley was accompanied by his 17-year-old bride, making Frances Barkley the first European woman on Vancouver Island. The name Baia de Carrasco can also be found in Spanish nautical charts from this period . The Spanish explorer José María Narváez named the bay in 1789 after a Spanish naval officer and his second in command on this voyage of discovery .
fauna
In addition to rich fish stocks, which found refuge here due to the connection with the Pacific and thanks to the sheltered bay, there are numerous species of birds, such as the North American wigeon or the belt fisherman . Colonies of sea lions and gray whales can be found near the Pacific, alternating between the bay and the open Pacific. The same applies to salmon that cross the Sound to spawn and swim up the rivers.
traffic
From Port Alberni you can take a mail boat ( Lady Rose or Frances Barkley ) to the islands in the sound, but you can also continue through the sound to Ucluelet and Bamfield. They are an excellent sea kayak area. However , if you want to visit the islands designated as reserves , you should obtain permission from the Tseshaht Band Office in Port Alberni.
history
The Toquaht live on the north side of Barkley Sound, tracing back to a village called T'ukw'aa, which has been inhabited since at least 800 AD. In the village of Ch'uumat'a the finds go back as far as 4000 years. Their neighbors in the sound were the Tseshaht until 1882 (see article on the archeology of the Tseshaht ), who today form the largest Nuu-chah-nulth group on Barkley Sound. The finds reach around 3500 BC. BC back. The Ucluelet in the north and east also have a share in the sound, as do the Hupacasath and the Ohiaht, so that a total of six First Nations see parts of their traditional territory there. However, only the Huu-ay-aht and the Tseshaht have a stake in the Deer Group and the Broken Islands . The latter are in turn a First Nation consisting of at least six individual groups. Evidence of their presence can be found everywhere in the sound, for example in the form of stone fish traps. Three of them can be found in the lagoon between Jacques and Jarvis Island, another four off Mence, Brabant, Turtle and Wouwer Island; A total of seven of these devices can be seen in the vicinity of the Broken Islands, and there is evidence of 39. In addition to fishing for salmon, for example, the Nuu-chah-nulth were the only ones on the west coast of Canada to hunt whales on the open sea, but also in the large bays. So they hunted humpback whales in Barkley Sound.
The oldest traces were found in 1999 on Benson Island, an island that the Tseshaht believe to be the birthplace of their tribe. However, it is not clear whether they actually lived there more than 5000 years ago, i.e. whether there is sufficient cultural continuity. The Tseshaht lived on Benson, Clark, Owens, Lovett, Trickett and Turret Island until the 18th century, plus a small part of the sound. Only from this time on did they expand through military campaigns. Such conquests often resulted in the complete takeover of the traditional territory of the defeated, often the relatives were amalgamated in various forms and thus became part of the Tsehsaht. Their territory reached its greatest extent at the end of the 19th century, when they held the Broken Islands, the west of the Deer Group, the northern edge of the Sound, most of the Alberni Canal and the lower Somass River. The central location for rituals was Effingham Island, where an important lake was located. In winter they lived on the lower Somass, where they owned a sheltered village of long houses. These were built from the wood of the Cedar or Thuja plicata or gigantea, which is called the giant tree of life in German . By contrast, they lived on the Broken Islands from March to August. As early as January, they began to slowly move there, depending on the food supply. Except for the supporting stands, they took their houses with them on their canoes. After 1800, the Tseshaht gave up their homes on the Broken Islands, but returned after 1840.
In 1982 there were already 32 known shell middens , a kind of rubbish heap for shells and clams. These dark hills, which are mostly devoid of vegetation, are under protection and should not be entered as they represent important archaeological sites.
In 1791 an expedition ship of the Spaniard Francisco de Eliza , the Saturnina , sailed for several weeks under the leadership of Juan Carrasco and José María Narváez through the Barkley Sound, which the Spaniards called Boca de Carrasco .
The first settlers who did not belong to the Nuu-chah-nulth came around 1850. After the reservations were assigned to the neighboring Indian tribes, they only had reservations on Diana in the Sound (there is a burial site at Kirby Point, which was last used in the 1940s was; therefore overnight stays are prohibited there), Haines, Effingham, Nettle and Keith Island.
In 1882 the Tseshaht, who mainly used Effingham, Nettle and Keith Island, received a small reservation there. Since there was no visible sign of their presence on Benson, this island was not added to the reservation. John Benson bought the island in 1903 when the Tseshaht still visited the island occasionally. The village on Effingham burned down in 1914 when someone tried to drive away snakes with fire. The lower Somass has been the main area of the Tseshaht since the 1940s - until today. Since then, the number of Tseshaht, whose population had suffered catastrophic burglaries, has recovered rapidly. They no longer live in the sound if they fish again in Equis Bay and use huts on Nettle Island.
literature
- David F Hatler, R Wayne Campbell, Adrian Dorst: Birds of Pacific Rim National Park. British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria 1978, ISBN 0-7718-8014-6 .
- Area One: Barkley Sound. In: Mary Ann Snowden: Sea Kayak Barkley & Clayoquot Sounds. Rocky Mountain Books, Surrey 2005, ISBN 1-894765-54-0 , pp. 38-97.
Web links
- Map of Barkley Sound
- Photo of a cave on Effingham Island
- Simon Fraser University - Department of Archeology: Excavations in Barkley Sound
Remarks
- ^ Andrew Scott: The Encyclopedia Of Raincoast Place Names. Harbor Publishing, Madeira Park, BC 2009, p. 59.
- ^ Birds, p. 54.
- ^ Jean-Francois Marleau: Kayaking the Broken Group Islands on Canada's West Coast, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Ucluelet 2006.
- ^ Jean-Francois Marleau: Kayaking the Broken Group Islands on Canada's West Coast, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Ucluelet 2006, p. 56.