Talk:Discovery Islands
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[edit] Hardwicke Island
Is Hardwicke Island one of the Discovery Islands? This page and the Discovery Islands template don't list it, and it doesn't seem to come up much on a google search. But the map on this page includes it. This page, about early schools in the islands, says "There are many other islands that make up the Discovery group, and some of them had a large enough community for which to build a school. Maurelle, Stuart, Thurlow, Hardwicke, and West Redonda each acquired schools between the dates of 1913 and 1929. Nevertheless, most of the schools of the Discovery Islands were short-lived as these small coastal communities struggled with fluctuating economies, which forced many residents to relocate." Finally, from looking at a map it seems to me that Hardwicke Island ought to be included, especially because there are no more islands along Johnstone Strait for some distance -- practically until Queen Charlotte Strait. Is there a good reference that defines just what the Discovery Islands are? Thanks. Pfly (talk) 22:33, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
- Maybe in J. Holland Landforms of British Columbia (1976, BC Govt; now online somewhere -yahoo, hit the jackpot!), but I never read his coastal sections much. I'd take the Malaspina College website as valid enough, i.e. a demonstration of the usage. http://www.britishcolumbia.com who I don't usually recommend (commercial site) may state it also; unfortunately the GeoNames Database doesn't include definitions of things like archipelagos and mountain ranges; for bivouac's range catalogue (now hidden from non-subscribers, unfortunately) I had to decipher various refs in Holland to figure out some of them; often clues about a boundary were in the section on another area, it's that chaotically written. He might classify the islands of the coast, though; East Cracroft, the next big island west up the Johnstone Strait, in part of an archipelago that I've never heard a name for; the Broughton Archipelago is on the north side of the QCS only. Maeve Blanchet's The Curve of Time is a coastal memoir and may have something, and there's other coastal-history/travel personal accounts that probably say something; you'd think the official names would be easier to get at definitions for in the various govt sites, but no....Skookum1 (talk) 04:04, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
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- British Columbia: From the Earliest Times to the Present, Scholefield & Howay, a classic and sometimes even now definitive, though very old....I've been researching writing Howay's bio and came across nearly all of his works online at www.nosracines.ca. You might want to have a look at the tabele of contents of this one...and the list of illustrations....Skookum1 (talk) 04:17, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
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[edit] Name origin
I've tried to find some info on the origin of the name "Discovery Islands", to no avail. There's no BCGNIS entry. I have a sneaking suspicion is it some kind of tourism type name, made up by some committee looking for a catchy, promotional name. Or it could be after James Cook's ship HMS Discovery (1774), I don't know. But I just read on a blog-like website this statement: "the Discovery Islands were called that because the explorers discovered that the tide changed near here and started going the other way, so that they knew there was a passage around the island." So now I'm really curious. Anyway know for sure? Pfly (talk) 06:54, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
- Walbran says Discovery Island off Victoria was named by Vancouver for his ship (and I suppose nearby Chatham Island was named by him for his tender the Chatham). Would he use it for the Island group as well> --KenWalker | Talk 13:33, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
