Arizona republican., 1903-08-23


 Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and | the Canadian Pacific.
 Alaska tourists reach Victoria and l Puget Sound ports by Sea by the steamers of the Pacific Coast Steam | ship company from San Francisco.
 The excursion steamer Spokane. ac- l commodating 200 passengers leaves Ia coma every If days through the sum- mer months, making the trip in II days is not bound by q. mail contract, and | arranges it's course and movements to | reach the places of interest at most | convenient hours. The steamer accom- | mcdationS are first class in every re- spect. As all the voyage is in smooth. , landlocked waters. save the short in terVal of Queen Charlotte sound, sea sickness is not to be anticipated by any one. In the nightless days of the north ern summers little is lost by darkness.
 Tacoma. population about 5O,0OO. is situated on a bluff 1S0 feet high over looking Puyallup bay Seattl popula- about 10000. fronts on Elliott bay.
 Fort Townsend. the Key City of the sound" population about 5.CO0. is the port of entry for the Puget sound GUS toms district, and point of departure of United States mails for Alaska. The Strait of Juan De F'uca. leading to the Pacific. is a magnificent highway S3 miles in length and F miles in width , Victoria. population S0,000. offers much to the tourist who waits the Alaska steamer ct that point.
 ! The steamer after leaving Victoria skirts the shores of San Juan Island and enter the Gulf of Georgia by the narrow active pass between Mayne and ] Galiano islands. The Gulf of Georgia and it's connecting waters comprise an | inland sea. The 100 mile stretch be- | tween Active Pass and Cape Nudge is 1 the finest part of this Inland sea- that 1 is 10 and 50 miles broad off the mouth l of the Fraser river. Discovery pas sage, g miles in length. separates Van
 couver from Faldes island and the geo. logical formations of it's banks show how recently the two islands were one.
 Midway in the pass are the Seymour
 Narrows. The Narrows are a mile and
 q half long and less than half a mile
 wide, and the ebbing tide from the Gulf
 of Georgia races through at a speed varying from 10 to F knots an hour. Ships are timed to reach the Narrows
 during the favorite quarter hour be- T. fore or after the ten minutes of slack water. when the whirlpool boils and Il sinners wildly. The few who have inadvertently gone through with the racing tide have seen the whole gorge white with foam, waves rearing and breaking madly, deep holes boring down into the water. fountains boiling up like geysers and ships reeling, shiveIing, staggering in the demon s hold. Many vessels were wrecked be- fore the pass was fully known. John- stone strait, B miles in length. and Broughton strait, II miles in length, varying from l to miles in width con- tinue the double panorama of forested slopes and hold mountain walls.
 From Queen Charlotte sound to Mil bank sound is 40-mile gap in the is land belt. Sometimes the swell of the outer ocean may De felt, but more often Z it is stilled expanse. Piloting, which is all by sight along this coast. is often } by echo along this reach, and the mar iner's acute senses tell, as the sound is \ flung back, how the shores are trend- ing, and there is even detected, by d strange quality in the echo. the pres erce of another ships sails.
 The Japan stream strikes full against this entrance. on it's recurved course ! and its warm air, condensed by Mt Stephens an dthe white host. lies in solid banks upon the water in and out
 ot which one passes as through door
 Every branch and twig sparlles with
 vivid greenness in this dewey air,
 washed clean with perpetual mists
 The Menzie and Merton spruces, and
 Douglas fir, stand as closely together
 as blades of grass. and the eye sees
 only leagues and leagues Of tree-t tops
 on every slope and shore. their foliage
 so intensely green. when near at hand,
 
 bronze. grey and olive in the distance,
 ard often glowing in the late after
 noon as if the foliage reflected some | concealed color. or the slopes were clad
 in blooming heather. No forest fires
 darken the air beyond Vancouver s
 shores, and the scar of landslide or l wind break is clothed by a second season. A whole forest thus thrves
 on air and rocks, the trees crowding one another in their growth. and. with | no tap-root to steady them, they fall by acres before storm wind. Their own weight often pulls the thin skin | of earth from the rocks, and acres of perpendicular forest go laundering down into the bottomless channels, and
 nature decorates the heights afresh.
 The finest scenery on the steamer
 regular course through the Columbian l archipelago lies between Milbanll l sound and Dixon entrance. double ! panorama of unbrolien beauty 200 miles | in length. The tourist canot afford to
 lose an hour of this scenic watch. l Green slopes are reflected in greener
 waters. every tree and twig growing | double, and only bands of algae
 or tide-washed rock tell where refiec- | tions part. The shores rise almost per
 pendicularly for 1000 or l,5OO feet. above
 which snow-clad ridges rise as high
 again. and the channels vary frC... an
 eighth of d mile to two miles in width. | Tall trees climb and cling to these walls
 like vines and cascades slipping out | from the snow banks flash among the | green and go singing to the sea.
 I Finlayson channel Is 24 miles in l length, from one to two miles in width,
 with depths of 50 and 150 fathoms. | Grenville channel, the arrowy reach
 cutting northwestwardly from Wright
 sound for 45 miles without bend or
 break. is considered first of Columbian
 liords, and the deep, glass foored, echo