Beach Combing
With over 120km of sandy beach right at your door step where do you start? When you have tidal variations up to 24 feet twice a day… any place is a good place to start!
The Kuroshio, California and North Pacific Ocean currents convey and deposit all manner of treasures including: the much sought-after Japanese glass balls and sake bottles, agates, shells, whalebones and more….
Star of the gravel drifts is the agate. The agate will range in colour from the more common clear-to-yellow-through-amber hues to the rarer white, blue and black. The agate is most easily spotted when wet from surf or rain at which point the suns rays will make it gleam.
Also of interest is red jasper, milky white and amber quartz, all of which are readily found on the surrounding beaches and at river mouths.
Quartz crystals and opal also occur inland of Haida Gwaii. there is evidence that jade was used by the Haida in the making of axes, but there are no known deposits on the Islands.
Argelite, is a black slate unique to the Haida Gwaii and is accessible only to the Haida. This stone was used for scrimshaw carving of miniaturized totem poles for trade. Whilst not considered a gemstone, it is widely used today by Haida carvers in a variety of applications
