The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1869-09-25
Letter from Victoria.
VICTORIA, yancouver's Islant

AE1CIOhlA,
FRIEND VAN After many days,
through great tribulation by land and by
water; through trials that would dampen
the ardor of the most sanguine of Uncle
Samuels impetuous sons, and through
scenes that would make the artists brush
leap from its plastic element, or the
poets muse to sing for JOY and revel in
the beautiful and picturesque; through
forests blackened by the recent fires,
with now and then mighty fir, in close
proximity to the road, balancing upon
doubtful foundation, and whose gnarled
and blackened trunk, that has borne the
burden and heat of many fiery ordeal,
seems like giant monster in reverie,
careless of all beneath, and so likely to
bring swift destruction upon the unwary
traveller as to lay his massive form in the
cool and darkened shadows of his fellows;
through many beautiful scenes in noun
tain aud lowland, aud some very fertile
prairies, watered by clear, cool streams,
in whose darkling eddics the monntain
trout seeks safe retreat. But on near
ing the Sound great change comes, not
:" Ger the spirit of your dreams" but
over the character of the country-from
fertility to gravely expanse, consisting
of thousands of acres, and suggesting to
your mind tho idea that sometime in the
long ago the waters Of the Sound covered
these grayely prairies, and the inhab-
itants of the deep held full sway, where
now sparse vegetation alone grcets the
eye.
But the Sound Have your eyes ever
gased on its CLASSY surface, or looked
into its clear depths No. Then you
have duty to perform. Puget's Sound
is one of the wonders of the world, and
no journalist within its reach should fail
to- sec it. No harbor in the world excels
it in any particular. It's mines cf coal,
iron, gold and silver, in due time, will
rival maLy of our richest camps. Her
fisheries will be world renowned, aud the
innumerable quiet little bays, heavily
fringcd with foliage of evergreen, offer
and law evading personages. The me-
anderings of the Sound, including each
little bay and inlet, amount to many
hundreds of miles in extent, and capable
of supporting dense population. The
cities of the Sound are, Olympia, situated
at the Southern extremity Seattle, some
thirty odd miles below; Steilacoom and
Tacoma, intermediate, and aspiring with
others to the high position of becoming
at some future but not far distant day,
the terminus of the Northern Pacific
Railroad, and consequently the great me-
tropolis' of the Pacific coast
Vancouver's Island-what a pity it is
that Uncle Sam didn't try to buy John
Bull out, instead Of sinking seven mil
lions in Alaska ice bergs and blubberiDg
Hottcntots. I'd like to own Victoria &
mean the city,. I think if I couldn't
offer white folks any inducements to go
into business or settle, I'd issue procla-
nation to Asia and Africa, and offer,
besides low rents, liberal inducements in
the way of trade, especially in opium and
birds nests for the Chinese, and Wade
and Butcher razors and rubber combs for
the negroes. Then we could look on and
see the representatives Of two of the grand
divisions of the globe following each
their legitimate business. Nothing but
Observation-Disclosures will ever
redeem Victoria from old fogyism.
At every turn, in every place,
You meet Bombastes face to face. z.