The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-02-08
yictorla.

From Port Townsend it is three
hours run, across tho Straits of Dc
Fuca, to Victoria on Nancouvers ISL
and; and here, at ones first step. he
realizes that he is on British soil. 1t is
strange that two peoples speaking the
same language, holding in themain the
same or similar beliefs, can have in their
daily living so utterly dissimilm atmos-
phercs as do the Americans and the En-
glish. his sharp contrast can nowhere
be more vividly seen than in going from
Washington Territory TO Vancouver
Island. Victoria is town which would
well repay careful study. Even in the
most cursory glances at IL, one sees
symptoms of reticent life, a flavor Of
IN stery and leisure, backgrounds of
traditionary dignity and hereditary
squalor, such MS one might go up and
down the whole Paci C coast, from San
Diego TO Portland, and not find. When
Victoria is, as it is sure TO become,
sooner or later, a wide-6nown summer
ing place, no doubt its by-ways and
highways, its by-gone ways and days,
will prove mines of treasure to
the Imagination Of some dreaming
story-teller. The business PAR of the
town, ii tone may be pardoned such mis-
nomer in speaking OF its sleepy streets,
| is rubbishy and filtered The buildings
are shabby, unadorne |, with nopretense
| of design or harmon, They re ind
one of the inferior pori MS Il seco d.
| class commercial towns in ENGLAND, and
the men and women in the shops, on
doorsteps and in alley-wa5s look as /.
they might have just one from Hull.
But once outside This part OF the town,
all is changed delightful, picturesque
| lanes; grea, meadow spaces full OF
oaks; knoll $ of mossg powders; Old
trees swathed in WV; cottages buried
! in roses and h nc suckle; c ejn Portable
! ouses, with lawns and hedges, sun-tlials
and quaint weather-vlnes; castle like
houses Of stone, with lodges and high
walls and drive-ways; and TO complete
the picture, unering down the lanes,
or driving at ST tely PAGES along the err
feet roads nonchalant men and leisure v
wo en-, whose nchalance and leisure
could not be outdone or outslared in
hyde lars.
At every turn is a new view of the
sea. or sud en- glimrse of some half
hidden inlet or bay. These bursts and
surprises OF beautiful bits OF water are
the greatest harm of the pla O. Driv-
ing westward from the town one has
the superb Royal Roads harbor on the
left for ilesi then, turning to the
right, through woods that meet over
head, past fields full OF tossing fringes
of brakes an thi kets of spra twenty
feet high, he comes suddenly on
another exquisite land-locked. unsus-
pecte Earbor-the Es uimault harbor,
with its own little hamlet Skirtine
around this, and bearing back toward
the town again, b road farther in
land, he finds that TO reach the town he
m st cross inlet after inlet. Woo Q /,
6ark, silent, amber-colore !, they are a
very ara iise for lovers of rowing; OF
for lovers of wooing, either, we
tho ieht, as we came again AMI again
on tiny craft, in which two at with
idle oars At other times, as we were
crossing some picturesque stone bridge,
pleasure barge, with gay flags flying,
and young men and maidens singing,
would shoot ogt from under il, and dis
appear around leafy corner. From
every higher ground we could see the
ma estic wall of the Olympic range
rising in the south. The day will come
when some painter will win fame fol
himself by painting this range US seen
from Victoria; solid wall Of turquoise
blue, with its skyline fretted and tur.
retted in silver snow, rising abrupt and
perpendicular out Of dark green and
purple sea- do not know any mount
ain range so beautiful or so grandly set
Often its base is wrapped in white mists,
which look as if they were crystallized
in ripples and ridges, like a field of ice
foes. Rising out OF these, the blue
wall and snowy SUBMITS seem lifted in.
TO the skies; to have no connection witt
ca tn except by the iee-floe belt. -At
ldRtic MonthtH