Plan du Port des Francais sur la cote du nord-ouest de l'Amerique

Engraved map. Relief is shown by hachures and depths by soundings. Oriented with north toward the upper left.

A fine, large chart of Lituya Bay, located within Glacier Bay National Park, along Alaska's southeastern coast. La Perouse discovered the bay in 1786 and named it Port des Francais. He hoped to make it France's major port in the Pacific Northwest and described it as "perhaps the most extraordinary place in the world." He soon discovered what makes the idyllic bay famous today: high (10-foot) tides and strong (14 mph) tidal currents. Twenty-one of La Perouse's men perished in the tidal currents while they were attempting to sound the waters at the narrow entrance. La Perouse built a monument to the lost men on the island in the center of the bay, which he named Cenotaph (meaning empty tomb) Island.