The island is essentially a mountain range composed of metamorphic and trappean rocks, fringed by a belt of Carboniferous limestones and other sedimentary deposits. Among the metamorphic and erupted rocks are gneiss and killas or clayslate, permeated by quartz veins, quartz and hornblende rocks, compact bituminous slate, highly crystalline felspathic traps, and semi-crystalline concretionary limestone. Among the sedimentary rocks are sandstones and stratified limestones, fine and coarse grits, conglomerates, and fossiliferous limestones, shales, &c., associated with seams of coal. The country is strewn with erratic boulders and other marks of Glacial action. So far as is known at present the chief mineral resource is coal, which is worked in large quantities at Nanaimo on the east coast, and in quality is reputed the best on the whole Pacific coast. While limited areas in the south-east of the island and in the inland valleys are well adapted to agriculture (about 300,000 acres in all), and while farming is carried on to some extent, the country is too mountainous ever to develop agriculture on any large scale. The mountains are, however, covered with forests, mainly the Douglas pine, yielding splendid supplies of timber. These forests, with its coal and its fisheries, may be regarded as the chief resources of the island. The climate of Vancouver, especially in the south, is wonderfully mild for the latitude, as mild as that of Great Britain, with drier summers. The mean temperature of December at Victoria, in the south of the island, is about 38° Fahr., while that of July is 53°. A rainfall of 35∙87 inches in the year has been recorded at Esquimault. In the northern parts and in the west the climate gets much more severe, and there the rainfall is greater than on the south and east coasts. Cereals of all kinds, all fruits of the temperate zone, pulse, and vegetables flourish on the patches suited to agriculture, while cattle and sheep can be easily reared in small numbers. The population of the island in 1881 was 9991, of whom 5925 lived in the city of Victoria. In 1887 the population was estimated at 25,000 (19,000 whites and Chinese, and 6000 Indians).

The capital of the island is Victoria (q.υ.). Three and a half miles to the west of Victoria is the town of Esquimault at the head of Parry Bay. There has been a British Admiralty station here for many years, the harbour having an average depth of from 6 to 8 fathoms. There are Government offices, two churches, a public school, and various other buildings. The Canadian Government has constructed a dry dock, 450 feet long, 26 feet deep, and 65 feet wide at the entrance. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway renders Esquimault of increasing importance. Seventy-three miles north of Victoria and connected with it by railway is the town of Nanaimo, the centre of the coal mining industry; the average output of coal in the five years ending 1887 was 250,000 tons per annum. The mines employ about 1100 men. There are a good harbour and wharves. The population in 1887 was estimated at 4000. There are smaller communities in the island, mainly in the south corner. Sixty miles north-west of Nanaimo is Comox, the chief centre of the lumber industry. On the mainland, opposite Nanaimo, on a peninsula to the south of Burrard’s Inlet, a city named Vancouver has recently been formed (incorporated 1886) at the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

History.— Vancouver Island was discovered by Juan de Fuca in 1592. In 1778 Captain Cook roughly surveyed the coast, this work being extended by Captain Vancouver, who surveyed the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Gulf of Georgia. The first settlement on the island was made by the Hudson’s Bay Company on the site of Victoria in 1843. Six years later Vancouver Island was constituted a colony. Its union with British Columbia was effected in 1866∙.