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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1884)
THE WEST SHORE. 145 stations and missionary posts, presenting a succession of scenes of absorbing interest Victoria, the point of our departure and that of nil the principal lines of transportation through the Province, occupying one of the most magnificent sites on the Pacific Coast, commanding the principal trade of 300,000 square miles of country rich in the great resources of nnnl frold. lumber, fish and agriculture, is destined to V"' 0 , - , w ... become a great commercial metropolis. Sailing out of its beautiful harbor what a glorious panorama of moun tains, seas and islands comes into view. Across the Straits of Fuca the snow-covered Olympian peaks present their bold faces to the northward; Mount Baker towers majes tically in the east, and scores of picturesque islands, clothed in perpetual green, fill the wonderful waters of Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia with landscapes of strikins erandeur and beauty. , Sailing northward we skirt the shore3 of Vancouver Island, whose sea wall of rounded trannean rock, sparsely wooded with pine and oak, receding gradually, ia interspersed with pleasant green slopes and park-like openings. The conspicuous mansion situated upon a commanding eminence in the eastern suburbs of Victoria is the Government House now occupied by His Honor Lieutenant-Governor Corn wall. A little beyond, bordering the shores of Cadboro Bav. several well-imDroved farms are visible. Driven into this snug little harbor in the month of April, I was surprised to see vegetation bo well advanced, the grasses preen and flowers in bloom. Approaching the entrance to the Canal de Haro, San Juan Island, to the northeast, first engages the attention. It is the largest of the San Juan group-comprising Orcas, Lopez, Blakely, Decatur, Waldron, Shaw's, Stuart, Speiden, Henry and others-being thirteen mues long with an nveirafn width of four miles. It acquired his torical importance as disputed territory, having been iointlv occunied bv the English and- American forces from IRKS k 1R73. when the boundary question was finally settled. Lying to the westward of this group, and Y,a ArphinnWo de Haro, are numerous islands belonging to British Columbia. Of these Salt Spring, Galiano, Saturna, Pender, Sidney, Moresby, Mayne and Texada (the famous island of iron) are the most important They are uniformly rock bound, with basalt, sandstone and conglomerate formations, inter i;,if nifrmvl And irretrular in outline, thickly wooded with fir and spruce, and ruing from WW to 3,000 feet above the sea. Their climate is healthful and uniform, rainfall not excessive, and great extremes of Thfl forests abound with door, 113(11 VJl ui'iu uuauunu otter, coon and mink, and the surrounding waters with salmon, halibut cod and other excellent nan. in l.nnnin n nni'unnnllll rfI)til8fl. Following the Canal de Haro to near Plnmper s Pbhh, then taking the Nanaimo channel anu huuv - :i.a - it.. r-.L.. M.n.,'mr onrlv on the 9th of April we reach Departure Bay, a fine little lnnd-lked, forestbound harbor, eighty , miles from Victoria, lhis is the shipping point of tbe'Nanaimo coal mines, tlie most Drodnctive in tho Provincfl. MDortmi? nnnnallv ftlumt ( . , 0 rf 200,000 tons to San Francisco, Wilmington, Honolulu and Lluna. Ihis coal, the bent found on the racino Coast uiuterhes hundreds of thousands of acres along the east shore of Vnneouvcr Island Tho early construction o the Island Railway from Victoria to those conl fields, now assured by the passago of the Settlement Bill by the Dominion Parliament will give a marked impetus to tho development of this greot and permanent source of wealth to the whole Province. Many moons ago, before the pale faces came, according to tradition, soveral hun dred Indians made tho largest island noar the entrance their refuge and Btronghold in time of war. But being taken by surprise by thoir enemies, a powerful northern tribe, all were slain. Thoir bones, it is said, still whiten the island in places. A small band of Indiaiw are soon camping on the shore of the gulf, just outside of the bay, drying the spawn of herring for ftxd. They su6poiid and buoy the branches of treeB in deep water whore herring abound, and when covered with spawn haul them out nnd hang them up to dry in the sun. A little further on several canoes, manned by Indians, are engaged in catching dogfish, which are very numerous in those waters, and are used for making 01L Resuming our voyage on the following day, we pawn flomnt. one of the largest and most prosiMirouB settle ments on Vancouver Island, 135 milos from Victoria, Here are also very extensive deposits of gcxxl bituminous coal destined to be of immense value. Texada Island, containing mountain masses of rich magnotio iron ore, now used by the Port Townsend smelting works, is seen in the distance on the right On the left lies a long stretch of level, fir-timbored country, with a productive soil, affording good opiortunitioB lor hundreds ol laroi- lies willing to work to acquire homoH and inuoionuonoe. On past Oyster Bay, at Coie Mudge, the southern ex tremity of Valdoz Inland, we enter Discovery Passage, the beginning of the wonderful deep-sea channels leading away north to Alaska. Here are Seymour Narrows through which tho pent-up waters rusn winning ami foaming at the rate of ten or twelve milos an hour, ami whore the United States steamer flrirawic struck a rook and sunk a few years ago. The most powerful steamer seldom attempt the passage against the tido. This is the txiint whore the Canadian Poeifio Railroad once oonsld- ered the practicability ol bringing irom vaiura Vancouver Island lor an exuwmun , w.u mainland to Victoria. The same end will porimi event ually be accomplished by the running of immoiiso train transfer ferry bunt from Burrurd Inlet across tho gulf to Nanaimo. The Indians inhabiting those snores wore formerly hostile and dangerous. Twonty-two yearn ago R. Mnynard, the photographer, comMM on vim mm opposite the Narrows, on route in a ship's lxmt from the Stickeon River to Victoria. The Indians formed a plot to murder him and his twelve companions while stooping, burn thoir boat and carry off thoir supplies, which they would doubtless have clone had not one of tho iwirty, known as "Big Charley," who understood the Indian