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Description

Historically important annotated example of a very rare large-scale map of Southeastern Vancouver Island,

Focused on Victoria, it extends west to include Sooke, as far north as Chemainus, as well as embracing the Gulf Islands of Salt Spring, Mayne, Pender and southern Galiano Island. The area shown is still largely unsurveyed and sparsely inhabited. To the west, the dockyard at Esquimalt is shown, which since 1865, had been the headquarters of the West Pacific Fleet of the British Royal Navy. There was then very little settlement beyond the immediate Victoria-Esquimalt area, although crude roads extended northwards, up the length of the Saanich Peninsula, up the east coast of the island, and westward to Sooke Harbour.

The map was issued by the Government of British Columbia, under the supervision of William Sinclair Gore, the provincial Surveyor-General, acting under the orders of Premier George Anthony Walkem, who simultaneously served as B.C.'s Chief Commissioner of Lands & Works. The earliest maps of the region commissioned by Land & Works were printed in San Francisco by Britton & Rey (1880), but the present example seems to be a local imprint.

The map is based on exacting scientific surveys, with the delineation of the shorelines predicated on hydrographic charts first issued by the British Admiralty in the 1850s, and since continually updated. The terrestrial surveys were conducted by Crown surveyors who employed the latest trigonometric techniques to organized the area into named townships, which were further divided into numbered lots in preparation for them to be auctioned off to private buyers.

Rarity

This map is very rare.  OCLC locates 3 copies, none in Canadian Libraries.

Condition Description
Wall Map on linen, with original rods. Restored in several places, with minor loss.
Reference
P.A. Penfold (ed.), 'Maps and Plans in the Public Record Office [United Kingdom National Archives]', vol. 2 (America and West Indies), entry 572.