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
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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
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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