4 When we went on board the George W. Elder at Victoria, Vancouver, on the 30th July, bound for Alaska, we like most. of our fellow passengers had not the least idea where we were going first, for nothing is more difficult than to find out anything definite about the Alaska steamers, unless it be to secure a place in one. Rather to our surprise we found ourselves carried off to Port Townsend, and then further up Puget Sound, that wonderful inlet of the sea, to Seattle. It seemed hardly credible that all the business part of this city was burnt down about ten months ago, such fine four and five storied buildings are already standing all along the Sound frontage. By way of seeing the city we took an electric car, which went bounding along to Queen Anne's hill, where rather pretty villa residences are rising in all directions. But it struck us as characteristic of Seattle that even one specially large and pictures-quoly built villa, which had a large piece of pleasure ground set apart round it, in which were tivo really handsome fountains, one actually playing, had yet not a tree nor a lower. In the whole of Seattle there is not a tree left, till one feels im-
Neat a whole forest full Tree it has none And presently taking a cable car to Lake Washington, four miles for 5 cents only, we saw how magnificent the forest had been, ordinarily tall shade-trees just reaching up to the beginning of the ranches of the gigantic Douglas firs. We saw also how the people of Seattle are still getting rid of their trees by wholesale urning. The air of all Puget Sound was heavy with smoke, and possibly it was this smoke which attracted the mist by which even the nearest outlines were rendered indistinct. The smoke of its burning forests alone veiled the treeless city, that otherwise would have stued up naked in the sunshine. As to Lake Washington, it was obliterated. We just saw there was a landing stage, also a summer theatre, and a baseball club. We passed by two hospitals, also the public school, this last being the finest building in the city, and then we went to try to see the view from the Hotel Rainier, the other magnificent new hotel, standing foursquare on the way to Queen Anne's Hill, being as ye: uncompleted. A man in the' car told us there were more rogues in Seattle in proportion to its size than in any other place, and we have since been told that life is quite unsafe by the waterside at night. And in confirmation of this, only the next trip of the Elder one of the stewards was found dead and robbed, lying upon the wharf only about a hundred yards from the steamer. But nothing of the kind occurred to us at the time, although Seattle produced a general impression, hardly to be accounted for, of being wholly given up to money getting without any resi appreciation as yet even of the things that money can buy. As to the price building lots have already reached there, it is s0 high one cannot but think there must be a reaction soon. All still veiled in steamed on sented a pearance, as seen from the water at nightfall.
It stands on a cliff with only one road down to the port, instead of as in Seattle having a number of streets running down hill straight to the port, with cable cars running up them, and' electric cars along the fiat ground, cutting them at right angles. The clit at Tacoma is about 200 feet high, and handsome villas were alone visible standing on the top of it, looking like very pleasant places of residence. Walking along the principal street in the dark we were of by aman, who seemed quite well and young, and' who asked for the price of ai meal without apparently very much caring whether he got it or nek. Dut Townsend: at which we next found ourselves for the second time, is very much smaller than either of the other Sound ports we had visited. It has indeed quite a rudimentary air, They have cut down the cliff there, and tried to fill up a bit of the Sound, and we landed and ed as far as to the principal street, the entire length of one small street, upon a wooden quay. People seem to throw all their refuse outside their houses and then, as the tide recedes, it leaves all this refuse high and dry underneath the quays, smelling pretty badly, but not quite as badly as the drainage of Seattle, through which we had to proceed from the whan, where the steamer lay, to the town. There re tram lines at Port Townsend, but mostly grassed over, neither did we ever see any trams running upon them; though we walked about a good deal during the long drawn out hours that the steamer lay there, but we heard that they did run sometimes. We noticed the prices in the shops—for as in Tacoma everything had the price marked upon it here—were very high, 27 dollars and a half for a most wretched looking coat and waistcoat. We walked up the hill behind the town, and saw many nice houses, 8o far without roads, only little pathe between the bushes. As the soil is all sand, so that we had almost to plough our way through it, we rather pitied the wives and daughters of the men who had made money, living in these really good houses all with blinds and curtains drawn to save the furniture, probably, having to make their way through this thick sand ever time they went out. Perhaps this san may be the reason' we came across no smartly dressed people in any of these towns. We visited a building we were told was the Normal College, where several young Indies were drawing from casts, and most interesting set of botanical questions were chalked up upon the blackboard. We also looked into a small Kindergarten, also saw a Hall with a good floor, and the windows covered inside with new: papers, nearly to the top, apparently in Town Vall or a dancing ball we did not ler to protect it, but whether it was a
know. The plans for the new Town Hall, as exhibited in the shop windows, would have done credit toa city three times as old, but when this very ambitious looking Duilding is to be built is still a question. The papers were full of sensational advertisements, Make your fortune now", and so on, urging people to invest in real estate, and many people predict a
itst_ made me really understand the utter future for Port Townsend. But it dullness that there may be in the life of a Western city, and how if anything went wrong with new comer a deep do-pression would settle upon him, from which he might find it impossible to rally, This was while looking at a little wooden house with no surroundings, 80 to say, except the empty tins thrown out before the front door, and no road up to it, barely a path through the wilderness of dust and bri If the people can keep up their spirits such a place without any adventitious aid it is a great credit to them. As far an we saw none seemed very cheerful or the reverse in Port Townsend. We saw a clothes auction going on in the evening, but people did not seem much inclined to bid, A band also was walking about playing to excite peo ple to go into theatre near by, but as far we saw none went, Only drunken man appeared upon the scene, and the boys of Seattle set upon him and nearly drove hi distracted till a shopkeeper interfered in his behalf. Meanwhile the theatre seemed to be forgotten.
To many people on board the Elder during this delay at Port T: wnsend the temptation to give up the whole excursion, and just go away anywhere but not to Alaska,
further away, was all but irresistible. A which like mirage seemed ever getting deep depression seemed to have fallen upon our crowded company before we got away on August 2nd, not going to Victoria as usual, but making straight for Departure Bay on the north side of Vancouver Island, through the narrow pass that lies between Victoria "and Vancouver, but which is 80
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.