Metchosin
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.
1In 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 Placenames (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.