The municipality of Metchosin, on the south end of Vancouver Island, is a rural and agricultural suburb of Victoria. Metchosin, which is Salishan First Nation in origin, refers to a place of fish oil
or stinking fish.1
In 1842, Douglas visited the area during his surveys of the Island's coast, where in this document he makes reference to a Whoyring, present-day Becher Bay, although historians Akrigg and Akrigg appear to misspell
it as “Belcher”, perhaps in confusion with the West Coast's Belcher Point.2
1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 385.
2. G. P. V. Akrigg and H. B. Akrigg, British Columbia Chronicle, 1778-1846 (Victoria: Discovery Press, 1975), 349.