Cholmondeley Sound is a deep

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geogra ...

on the southeast side of Prince of Wales Island, in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

of southeast

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, in

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at . Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which i ...

and connecting to

Clarence Strait Clarence Strait, originally Duke of Clarence Strait,Statement of f ...

. The sound's entrance lies between Chasina Point and Skin Island. It is about west of Ketchikan, Alaska. Cholmondeley Sound has several bays and inlets within it, including Kitkun Bay, Dora Bay, Brennan Bay, and Sunny Cove. At its western end Cholmondeley Sound splits into two fjord-like inlets: West Arm Chomondeley Sound, about long, and South Arm Cholmondeley Sound, about long. The full length from the entrance of the sound to the head of West Arm is about . Cholmondeley Sound and its several arms are all deep, with steep and heavily forested shorelines. Cholmondeley Sound was named by

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

on 21 August 1793, for George Cholmondeley, The Earl of Cholmondeley. There was once a

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a 1 ...

summer village, known as Chatchini or Chat-chee-ni, used by the Kaigani Haida of

Kasaan Kasaan ( hai, Gasa'áan; tli, Kasa'aan) is a city in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 49 at the 2010 census, up from 39 in 2000. The name "Kasaan" comes from Tlingit , meaning "pretty town" ...

located near the entrance of Cholmondeley Sound, probably at Chasina Point. In the early 19th century the village and a nearby harbor today called Chasina Anchorage were visited by a number of American

maritime fur trade The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in ex ...

r. These traders spelled the name of the village in many ways, such as Chartsena, Charsena, Chatseana, and Chartseny. The anchorage was likewise spelled various ways, including Chuckenhoo, Chuckanoo, Chatseanoe, Chuckanahoo, Chucqueneque, and Kukkunuque. As a trading site, Cholmondeley Sound was only slightly north of the very popular site known as " Kaigani". The maritime fur ships that visited Cholmondeley Sound included the ''

Lydia Lydia (Lydian language, Lydian: ‎𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the mod ...

'', captain

Samuel Hill Samuel Hill (13 May 1857 – 26 February 1931), usually known as Sam Hill, was an American businessman, lawyer, railroad executive, and advocate of good roads. He substantially influenced the Pacific Northwest region's economic dev ...

, ''

Caroline Caroline may refer to: People * Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player * Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player Places Antarctica * ...

'', captain

William Sturgis William Sturgis (February 25, 1782 – October 21, 1863) was a Boston merchant in the China trade, the California hide trade and the maritime fur trade. Early life Sturgis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Hannah Mills and William ...

, and ''

Atahualpa Atahualpa (), also Atawallpa (Quechua), Atabalica, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa (c. 1502 – 26-29 July 1533) was the last Inca Emperor. After defeating his brother, Atahualpa became very briefly the last Sapa Inca (sovereign emperor) of the Inca Empir ...

'', all in 1805; the ''

Otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...

'', captain Samuel Hill, in 1811, the '' Volunteer'', captain James Bennett, in 1818–1819, the '' Mentor'', captain Lemuel Porter, and the '' Pedler'', captain John Meek, in 1821. According to the log of the ''Otter'', the Haida chief Kiangah sailed on the ''Otter'' for a while before being returned with a number of war dresses made of deer skins, which he intended to sell to other natives for

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the small ...

furs.

References

Further reading