Fuca

Fuca, or JUAN DE FUCA, STRAIT, a passage separating Washington State from Vancouver Island, and connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Gulf of Georgia. It contains several islands, one of which, San Juan, became the subject of a dispute between Great Britain and the United States, the question being whether it was to be regarded as an appendage of Washington Territory or of British Columbia. In 1872 the emperor of Germany, as arbiter, decided that the line of boundary should be run through the Strait of Haro, west of San Juan, thus awarding that island to the United States; and it and several neighbouring islands now form a county of Washington State, with a population of 948.