USA > Alaska > The wonders of Alaska > Part 2
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Portland's population can safely be set down as 80,000. There the same restless activity of life and the same earnestness of purpose is manifested as is seen in every growing city on the Pacific Slope.
TACOMA.
Tacoma lies next in our way, and this marvel of tenacity and intelligent adhérance to a town site in which, five years ago, stumps of fir and pine stood undisturbed in the heart of the embryonic city, on Pacific Avenue, its now leading thoroughfare, is an objective lesson in the tremendous energies of the people of Washington. It is, besides, an inspira- tion. Like its rival, Seattle, its growth and beckon- ing future are largely due to the pluck and confi- dence of those who, less than a decade ago, "came to stay." Notwithstanding Tacoma's great increase of population, suddenly rising from 5,000 in 1883 to to a population of over 30,000 at the present writing, her growth may be said to have been strictly con- servative, the inducements for investment and the opportunities for homes being all that was claimed for the city by its early settlers and promoters. It
I3
CITY OF TACOMA.
has never oscillated with the feverish threatenings between boom and panic, as has been the lamentable experience of so many new towns in the middle-west and on the Pacific slope. It is solid, never having been over-boomed, and to predict adequately its won- derful future would be equal in rashness with fixing to-day the limits of Chicago fifty years hence.
Tacoma is situated on the west shore of Com- mencement Bay on Puget Sound, the longest stretch of deep water of good aquatic behavior known on the world's map. The city is located on a high bluff ris -. ing by easy graduations from the water till it reaches to the top of a long level area where are many fine villa residences, commodious public school edifices and handsome churches. It possesses electric and cable lines and four railroads, and is the western terminus of the Northern Pacific railroad. In fact it has been the pet and protege of the latter corporation and is indebted largely to its favors for its enterprises and early stimulus given to its aspirations.
On its shores are shipping wharves, and in close proximity are large lumber mills, grain elevators and coal bunkers. Its harbor is deep and wide, and from the broad extended piers ships depart daily for all ports on our southern coast, and frequent ship- ments of lumber are taken for China, Japan, the Sandwich Islands, South America, and particularly for Australia and the Colonies. From it are also shipped by rail or vessel the enormous products of the Puyallup hop fields, nine miles distant, as well as wheat which comes from the great Walla Walla and Big Bend fields of eastern Washington.
Tacoma's leading citizens are, as a rule, young men, ambitious and rivited with a zealous devotion
14
TACOMA-SEATTLE.
to its prosperity and permanence. Scores of for- tunes have been made by individuals who, investing in their town lots and filled with sublime faith, " stood by their burg," as the expression runs there, and sold their lots, costing originally from two hundred to three hundred dollars and even less, for thousands.
About fifty miles to the southeast rises Mt. Tacoma, 14,444 feet above the sea level, which, towering in rugged grandeur, robed in perennial snows and seamed with frictions of the glaciers, is visible to the best advantage in this modern city of destiny.
SEATTLE.
Twenty-eight miles further north and on the east side of Puget Sound is the old Chinook town of Seattle. Its settlement antedates that of its rival by something more than a generation's span. Its citizens claim to possess the best harbor on the sound, while it is nearer the coal mines and the almost inexhaustible lumber regions. Its harbor is almost circular, leaving the city rising up from its shores in gently sloping terraces with the graceful sweep of a wide amphitheatre. Looking over the waters which lave this beautiful city is seen the vast Olympian range, while south of the city Mt. Tacoma rises lofty and white, with broad gigantic shoulders, like another Atlas weighted down with almost unbearable burdens. Here this mountain is not Mt. Tacoma. They insist that it shall be called Mt. Rainer-at least their side of it.
The situation of Seattle is very commanding; its wharfage is almost unlimited, affording most excel- lent facilities for commercial enterprises. There are
15
SEATTLE-PORT TOWNSEND.
her large and substantial business blocks of stone and brick, schools, hospitals, fine public buildings and private residences, evincing taste, wealth and enterprise. Though a terrible conflagration des- troyed a greater portion of the business edifices of the city in June, 1889, these have been replaced by more substantial and elegant ones, so that the fire, though a severe blow at the occupied energies of the city, will yet prove to be a blessing in dis- guise. There is no such thing as dampening the fervor or chilling the zeal of the people of Seattle.
Its trade is largely in lumber and coal, and it has business connections all over China, Japan and South America, wherever a vessel may wander to exchange commodities. Five railroads are trade bearers to this market, while cable and electric lines ramify in every direction through this bustling, prosperous, dauntless, ideal city. Its future, based upon geographical advantages of location, the min- eral and the timber all around it, its mills and rail- road alliances, as well as upon the business sagacity of its leading citizens, must surely be a grand one.
As for its population, about which there is so much discussion, when Tacoma mentally takes the census, it is safe to say that Seattle leads her neigh- bor and sister city by about five thousand, thus allowing Seattle to count a population of thirty-five thousand within her city limits.
PORT TOWNSEND.
Port Townsend is another of a series of young cities which has lately put on new life and is striv- ing for predominence on Puget Sound. It is a port of entry near the military post, Fort Townsend,
16
PORT TOWNSEND-VICTORIA.
which commands the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It has a capacious harbor. Nearly all the commerce of the Sound must pass this gateway and hence contiguous territories are beginning to pay tribute to its mart. As a port of entry it is credited with being second only to New York, in the extent of export tonnage.
It has a population of from five thousand to six thousand. Shrewd business men have invested all their confidence and their means in this progressive city which received its stimulus of rapid growth in 1885, when the other cities around it began their career of sudden and conspicuous prosperity. Busi- ness blocks worthy of any metropolis now adorn Port Townsend, and more are almost continually in course of erection, while two railroad companies, which only recently made bids for accessible water fronts, have sent surveyors in the field to select the most advantageous route for connecting this city with Portland, Oregon, and the country on the east of the Cascade Mountains.
For the tourist or lover of nature Port Townsend, besides being a promising place to invest in, pos- sesses perhaps the most glorious mountain scenery in Washington. Climbing the cliffs which look down upon the city, one can behold a scene of rare enchantment. On a clear day the lofty peaks of the entire Cascade Range, from Mt. Baker on the north to Mt. Tacoma on the south, can be witnessed in one grand procession of white-capped summits and glittering pinnacles. There is said to be three score of them.
VICTORIA.
Across the Straits of Fuca, and distant three hours run by steamer, is Victoria, the Capital of British
6
I7
CITY OF VICTORIA.
Columbia, and in point of beauty of location is not surpassed in the Pacific Northwest. Over thirty years ago Victoria was a post of the Hudson Bay Company and grew into a settlement during the Frazer River gold excitement. Notwithstanding that this activity was short lived, Victoria became a place of steady growth till her population is now reckoned at twenty thousand, of which the Chinese are no insignificant portion.
The entrance to the city by the inner harbor is long, rocky and winding and can admit only craft of lesser proportions, but its outer harbor, one mile away, is ample for vessels of all sizes. Its commerce embraces not only the whole North Pacific coast, but extends from Japan to Montreal, New York and even to England. The old Hudson Bay Company, opu- lent as ever, has one of its chief stations here. It is a great shipping point for fish, lumber and furs.
The city is remarkable for its well arranged and well constructed roads, and has many pleasant drives into the surrounding country. From Beacon Hill, rising in the center of the park, there is a fine out- look up the island. Gazing eastward, Mt. Baker lifts its hoary head twelve thousand feet, while one hundred and fifty miles further south, Mt. Tacoma shows itself the most commanding of all the peaks.
In every sense of the word Victoria is a handsome city. Americans on visiting it are struck by the solidity and graceful style of the architecture in its business houses, churches and schools. Being the seat of Government of British Columbia, it contains many government buildings of magnitude and beauty of design. Massiveness as well as symmetry seem to have been the objects of the architect.
18
VICTORIA-VANCOUVER.
There is a pleasant drive out to Esquimault (pro- nounced Squimalt) where the Dominion Government has constructed one of the finest docks on the coast. English men-of-war are to be found in this naval station at any time. Victoria, distant two thousand, nine hundred miles from Montreal, had hoped to be the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific road, but in this she was doomed to disappointment, Vancouver carrying away the honors and benefits derived from such a distinction.
VANCOUVER.
Vancouver is eighty miles from Victoria and the two are connected by a line of swift steamers. Van- couver is situated on a peninsula from the main land which shuts in an arm of the sea called Burrard Inlet, forming a perfect harbor. The city slopes on the one side to the waters of Burrard Inlet, and on the other to English Bay, which provides for perfect drainage, and, surrounded on all sides by sublime mountain and water scenery, Vancouver is a busy, healthful and beautiful city. It is a little over two years old and is a city of between twelve and fifteen thousand inhabitants.
We ogisig
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--
HARBOR OF SITKA, AND OLD WAREHOUSES. From photograph No. 7970, by PARTRIDGE, Portland, Ore.
CHAPTER III. THE INLAND PASSAGE.
FROM PORT TOWNSEND TO THE GREAT GLACIERS. - HISTORY OF THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY AND MAN- NERS OF ITS QUEER PEOPLE .- GRANDEUR OF ITS SCENERY .- SUBLIMITY OF THESE WATER CORRI- DORS. - DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS, MOUNTAINS, FJORDS AND CHANNELS .- FLORA AND VERDURE. - WRANGELL. - JUNEAU .- GLACIER BAY .- KILLIS- NOO AND SITKA.
S the tourist, bent on beholding the scenic grandeur, the frigid sublimity and the all prevail- ing wierdness of Alaska's shores and mountains, gener- ally embarks at Port Town- send, we too will put off from this thriving port and grad- ually open out the panorama as the numerous islands, precipices, crooks and turns will permit.
Leaving the deep waters of the Sound then, a north- westerly course across the Straits of Fuca brings us to Victoria, a distance of thirty-four miles, where a stop of six hours is usually made to receive freight and passengers and make a clearance at the Custom House. We leave Victoria in a northerly direction and keep to the west of the San Juan Islands, noted for their having been disputed territory between the
20
CAPT. GEORGE VANCOUVER.
British Government and the United States ; they were finally awarded by commission to the latter. These Islands are about eight miles from Victoria. Thence proceeding northerly through the De Haro Straits among innumerable islands, and passing Admiral Island on the east, at about thirty miles from Victoria, we wind through Active Pass and take a northwesterly course opposite Point Roberts; pass- ing the light house at Entrance Island, opposite Nanaimo, which latter is about three miles southeast from Departure Bay.
On our right is the mainland of British Columbia with its beatiful mountain view and on our left tower the mountains of Vancouver Island, which came into the possession of England about 1789, deriving its name from the great explorer. George Vancouver was an English navigator who had served as mid- shipman in the second and third voyages of Captain Cook, in 1772-75 and 1776-80. He was made first lieutenant and, about 1789, was commissioned to proceed to Nootka, with orders for the surrender of the place, from the Court at Madrid to Quadra, the Spanish Commandant. He was ordered to make a survey of the coast northward from latitude 30°, and to ascertain if there was any connection between the coast and Canada, by means of rivers, lakes or inlets.
In 1791, Vancouver left England and made an examination of the Sandwich Islands, and in 1792, he crossed to the American coast, secured the sur- render of Nootka, and took possession of Vancouver Island in behalf of Great Britain. Vancouver spent the summers of 1792-93-94 surveying the coast from the Straits of Fuca as far north as Cook's Inlet and wintered in the Sandwich Islands. He gave the
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VANCOUVER ISLAND.
island the name of Quadra and Vancouver, but the first is no longer used. In 1843, the Hudson Bay Company established a trading post at Victoria. The Island was long claimed by the United States, but Great Britain was confirmed in her possession by the treaty of '46. In 1849 it was granted to the Hudson Bay Company for fifty years. In 1859 it was formed into a colony, and in 1866 was consoli- dated with British Columbia. Vancouver Island now forms the southwesterly corner of British Columbia, and lies between north latitudes 48° and 50° and west longitudes 123° and 128°. Its length is 275 miles and its greatest breadth is 85 miles. The Island is separated from Washington by the Straits of Fuca, and from the mainland of British Columbia by the Canal de Haro, the Gulf of Georgia, John- stone Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The coast is much indented and has numerous inlets. The principal ones are Nootka Sound, Barclay or Nitnat Sound, Victoria Harbor, Esquimault Harbor and Nanaimo Harbor. The city of Victoria is the capi- tal of British Columbia. Its valley contains 300,000 acres.
On entering these northern latitudes, one who is not thoroughly acquainted with the geography of these shores, or the early explorations of the coasts, would probably be surprised at meeting with so many Spanish names. The fact is that the old Castillian voyagers have not to-day the credit that is their due, for, in change of hands and the vicissitudes which this country has witnessed in the course of centuries, many names have been changed or, from Indian or foreign corruption, have become so distorted as to be almost beyond recognition. Thus many a hardy
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CASTILLIAN EXPLORERS.
explorer has lost the last tie that binds his memory to this earth, and probably the only reward he might have gained by risk of life and sacrifice of comfort to benefit his kind, in dangerous exploration.
In rare instances have the changes in names been an improvement. The most striking examples of both classes of changes are probably Mt. Edgecombe in Sitka Harbor, which was called by the Spaniards, Mt. San Jacinto. The Florida Blanca Islands were renamed in the latter part of the last century by an English captain, who gave to the Islands the name of his ship-"Queen Charlotte." Through foreign interference, Boca de Quadra Inlet has become Bou- quet Inlet, and in like manner has La Creole been ' metamorphosed into Richreall, though on the old charts they retain their original spelling. Juan
Perez Sound in the Queen Charlotte group and many points north on the open sea coast, retain the names by which they were known centuries ago. In the Straits of Fuca is handed down to us the name of a more fortunate, yet probably less deserving adven- turer-Juan de Fuca. The difference in the opinion of authorities as to the merits of Juan de Fuca's dis- covery of these Straits would make a most interesting chapter, though one not within the province of this work to enlarge upon. There are grave doubts as to Fuca ever having entered these waters. Vancouver, however, gave the Straits their name, and so it will be handed to succeeding generations. In the case of Fuca, certainly it was the only reward he ever received for the "discovery of the Anain passage to India."
We steam through the Gulf of Georgia from Active Pass, about ninety miles to Cape Mudge, at the
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ENTERING THE PASSAGE.
southerly entrance of Discovery Passage. Through this Passage the water tears like a millrace, and about seven miles from Cape Mudge we pass through Seymour Narrows, where over a tremendous rock in mid-channel, the water fairly boils, and, at ebb and flood, tide-rifts swing the great steamner, making the passage of these rapids the most dangerous on the trip. It was at this place, that in June 1875 the U. S. S. "Saranac" was lost, and later in this neigh- borhood, the steamer "Grappler " burned and drifted to the Vancouver shore. Here the tourist meets the first of a series of surprises which, though he may be prepared for anything wonderful on the trip, will take him unawares.
The route from Cape Mudge lies between Van- couver Island on the west, and Valdes Island on the east, and though it is scarcely three-quarters of a mile across, the precipitious, evergreen-covered crags on either hand, tend to make the distance apparently much less, while the sombre cliffs to all appearances bring the voyage in this direction to an abrupt ter- mination; but land gradually opens out to the right and we are peering in that direction, wondering what new grandeur is next to be observed, when, with a short turn to the left, the steamer rounds Chatham Point and the passage broadens into Johnstone Strait. The Strait tends westerly for about one hundred miles, where it connects with Queen Charlotte Sound through several short passes and channels, each under a name of its own.
On the southwestern side of Johnstone Strait, the mountains rise abruptly from the water to the height of from two thousand to five thousand feet, capped with eternal snow. From the snow line, oft times
24
JOHNSTONE STRAIT.
to the water's edge, the evergreens, hemlock, spruce and cedar, with a rank undergrowth, hide the soil, save where the path of an avalanche has plowed down the mountain side and left a scar for ages. In some of these winrows the more delicate green of the moss which covers the stumps, fallen trunks and rocks comes out in charmning contrast to the darker hue of the evergreen.
Beautiful valleys near the summits are many and in the warmer season melting snow forms into streams which, falling into the sea, create waterfalls of remarkable beauty, and so near the steamer that the spray is felt by those standing upon her decks.
This is one of the most tangled regions of this labyrinthian voyage. Long-reaching armns, narrow channels and deep fjords present themselves on every hand, extending far inland or forming islands, and at every crook and turn taking on a new name, presenting on the chart a perfect maze of quaint orthography. The steamer's course lies along the Vancouver shore and we pass through Broughton Strait, with Alert Bay opening on the western shore, to Queen Charlotte Sound.
Entering Queen Charlotte Sound we come for the first time under the influence of the Pacific's swell, and if a spell of mal de mer comes over the more sensitive, it is but slight and soon passes, for a short run brings us to the entrance of Fitzhugh Sound, at Cape Calvert, and the sheltering mountains of Calvert Island.
The open sea lends variety to the beauties of this wonderful panorama and adds a new touch of color to the greens of the surrounding foliage. The hills on the east are lighted up with all the beauties of
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25
BEAUTIFUL SCENERY.
the kaleidoscope. The red and brown of the moun- tain slopes and granite crags, the glistening white of the snow-capped peaks, and the deep, dark shadows in some of the gloomy and narrow inland bays, form a graceful · blending of the blues of the ocean and the everchanging bright shades of the evergreen trees. Over these cliffs and crags the mountain goat rambles with that agility peculiar to his species. The mountains are clad from snow-line to water in dense coniferous forests, principally pine, hemlock, spruce and cedar, with some ash and a rank undergrowth, and the tenacity with which these gigantic trees cling to the precipices and thrive on the rocks and atmosphere is an everlasting source of wonder.
Fifty miles to the northward brings us to Lama Pass. Threading this narrow channel first due west, then again to the north, we come upon the first Indian hamlet on the route. It is a trading post called Bella Bella, prettily situated on the northern end of Campbell Island, and contains per- haps three or four hundred inhabitants, of which · somne twenty-five are white.
As we take a new departure north and west through Seaford Channel to Milbank Sound, thence northerly, gliding through miles of glassy green waters of Finlayson Channel, and successively through Graham, Fraser and Mckay's Reaches, we are regaled with an ever-changing procession of mountain scenery, waterfalls, dark fjords and open stretches.
Crossing Wright Sound, with its long and unex- plored arms, the ship steams into Grenville Chan- nel, which, throughout its long reach of forty-four
26
DIXON ENTRANCE.
miles, with barely a turn, has scarcely one indenta- tion in its mountainous sides that could be called a cove. Chatham Sound connects with Grenville Channel by several small straits- and the steamer's route takes us into one of these, Malacca Pass, through a maze of islands.
The steamer comes once more under the influence of the Pacific's agitated waters as we cross Dixon's Entrance. Passing Dundas Island, we leave in our wake the last vestige of foreign soil, and soon cross the boundary line between British Columbia and Alaska, which lies along latitude 54° 40' to a point opposite Compton Island, where it passes northeast- erly up the center of Portland Inlet. We are now in that jumble of islands and channels called, in honor of the Czar of Russia, the Alexander Archi- pelago. This maze extends from Dixon Entrance to Cross Sound, about three hundred miles in length and seventy-five miles east and west.
From Cape Fox the route is about seventy-five miles through Revillagigedo Channel, with Port Chester, or new Metlakatla on the west. The old historic Metlakatla Mission is located on Chin-say-an Peninsula. Thence thirteen miles through Tongas Narrows, and east into Behm Canal, we reach Loring in Naha Bay. It was at this place the steamship " Ancon " was wrecked on the morning of the 29th of August, 1889.
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