The Ely miner., 1911-08-25

valley of Oregon presents a
marvellous panorama to which the
clouds hanging over the mountains add
an atmosphere effect which no words
can portray. We are passing through
orchards of luscious apples, and as we
eagerly buy and greedily devour them
we feel far removed from the land of
oranges and angels.
| AS we follow the Willamette river
up through Washington we pass many
pretty places. The houses are rude,
bat there is a "homely" aspect about
them and at intervals all along the
| road one notices modest little
churches-perhaps a solution of the
content that seems 20 reign every
where
We crossed the sound from Tacoma
to Seattle on boat with a record of
$1,000 miles a year-the highest
known. Tho principal bone of conten-
tion between the river cities Of
Washington is Mount Rainier" or
Mount Tacoma" as you favor Seattle
or Tacoma
Even with seasickness ahead of
one there is a certain fascination
about vessel as she glides forth into
the ocean. We are under the British
flag at Vancouver, but one would not
know it except that the British walk
to the left and the Americans to the
right and accidentally embrace in a
good-natured way. The street cars
run on the left track, and a courteous
American sets forth the advantage of
this in auto driving. The outlook
across the bay is picture. but the
town is sleepy old place; wide
enough awake, however, to charge
American prices for everything. Here,
for the first time, we meet the Alas
kan Indian. A party is bound for the
hop pickings. They look deplorable
enough to be bound for any old
place, penned In their miserable quar-
ters. Along with them we have taken
on a small farmyard, shipped in re-
sponse to an order from an Indian,
reading: Send me five women chick
ems, one man chicken"
Bitter Creek, the scene of the re-
cent gold find, is in the Skeena divi-
sion of the Cessiar mining district,
which, despite the fact that 1t has
yielded rich finds of gold, was not
looked upon as one of the best-placed
mining districts in British Columbia
until the recent discovery. Gold was
first found there in 1884. The first
descriptions o. the find spoke of a
mountain of rold and of a reef at
least 20 miles In length. The noun.
tain has diminished" in view of later
news. It is said also that it will not
be as easy to obtain the gold as was
anticipated, for very little Of it, If
any, is free milling gold. Stewart,
which was practically unknown a year
ago. is growing rapidly, a etate of
things brought about in great part by
the announcement of the gold find at
Bitter Creek. The camp is aS peace
full and law-abiding as any country
town, there being only two policemen
in the district, whose sole dutr Is to
smoke the pipe of good fellowship.
Ketchikan. our first stop in Alaska,
a quaint little place. l noticed some
neat little churches and q few
good houses, and everywhere even
about the humblest shack. cultivated
flowers. l am told that there are
more than 1000 different varieties Of
mosses and wild flowers found on
these hills. We walked for a mile
along the broad walk by the river.
then crossed on logs to the other side.
1t is the spawning season, and the
river is simply alive with salmon.
Wrangle. as military post, has now