. Alaska, its history and resources, gold fields, routes and scenery . good prospect of the rail-road, now running but a score or so miles to the south,being extended so as to afford direct railroad communi-cation with Olympia and the east. The Alaska boat usually takes on passengers in greateror less numbers at this port, discharging also freight andpassengers for San Francisco on its return voyage. A delightful ride of three hours across the Strait ofJuan de Fuca, where sometimes a little motion of thevessel is felt should wind blow from the ocean, seventy-five miles to the west, brings us t
. Alaska, its history and resources, gold fields, routes and scenery . good prospect of the rail-road, now running but a score or so miles to the south,being extended so as to afford direct railroad communi-cation with Olympia and the east. The Alaska boat usually takes on passengers in greateror less numbers at this port, discharging also freight andpassengers for San Francisco on its return voyage. A delightful ride of three hours across the Strait ofJuan de Fuca, where sometimes a little motion of thevessel is felt should wind blow from the ocean, seventy-five miles to the west, brings us to Victoria, where a waitof an hour or so affords opportunity, for those who aredesirous of doing so, to step on English soil and admirethe handsome buildings, neat gardens, and grass plats,and to observe the manners of a community whose ev-ery appearance stamps them as wholly and essentiallyEnglish. Just across the little strip of water, to the north, thestaff bearing aloft the British flag can be seen, and underits shadow^ small squads of marines are distinguished. ^ X UJ CO > t ^-: UJ < b « < o N^ O I- s < I X % O tc ^ § ^ I i<: < UJ s U O PICTURESQUE ALASKA 129 going through a brief guard manoeuvre, while an oc-casional blast from a bugle echoes a call across thewater from the English naval station of the North Pacificat Esquimalt. When the steamer is again under way the journey toAlaska really begins, and the steady pufifing of theengine and the vibration of the ship are felt for threedays, while the six hundred and twenty-five miles beforereaching the first stopping-place in Alaska, twenty milesacross the boundary, are travelled. It is not unusual, however, for the steamer to put infor coal at Nanaimo, a town about sixty-five miles northof Victoria, on the east side of Vancouver Island. Ex-tensive deposits of a superior quality of bituminous coalare here located, large quantities of which are shipped toSan Francisco and Alaska. About two thousand menare
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