Off for Alaska.
If you are bound for Alaska, you can make the round trip most
conveniently and comfortably by taking the steamer at Portland, Oregon,
and retaining your state-room until you land again in Portland, three
weeks later. Or you can run north by rail as far as Tacoma; there board
a fine little steamer and skim through the winding water-ways of Puget
Sound (as lovely a sheet of water as ever the sun shone on), debark at
Port Townsend, and here await the arrival of the Alaska steamer, which
makes its excursion trip monthly--at least it used to before the
Klondyke hoards deranged the time-table and the times.
If this does not satisfy you, you may take passage at San Francisco for
Port Townsend or Victoria, and connect at either port with the Alaska
boat. Those who are still unsuited had better wait a bit, when, no
doubt, other as entirely satisfactory arrangements will be made for
their especial convenience. I went by train to Tacoma. I wanted to sniff
the forest scents of Washington State, and to get a glimpse of the brave
young settlements scattered through the North-western wilderness. I
wanted to skirt the shore of the great Sounds, whose praises have been
ringing in my ears ever since I can remember--and that is a pretty long
time now.
I wanted to loaf for a while in Port Townsend, the old jumping-off
place, the monogram in the extreme northwest corner of the map of the
United States of America--at least such it was until the Alaskan annex
stretched the thing all out of shape, and planted our flag so far out in
the Pacific that San Francisco lies a little east of the centre of the
Union, and the Hawaiian islands come within our boundaries; for our
Aleutian-island arm, you know, stretches a thousand miles to the west of
Hawaii--it even chucks Asia under the chin.
But now let me offer you a stray handful of leaves from my
note-book--mere suggestions of travel.
At Portland took morning train for Tacoma, one hundred and forty-seven
miles. Swarms of people at the station, and some ominous "good-byes";
the majority talking of Alaska in a superior fashion, which implies that
they are through passengers, and they don't care who knows it. Alaska
boat left Portland two days ago; we are to catch her at Port Townsend,
and it looks as if we should crowd her. Train crosses the Columbia River
on a monster ferry; a jolly and restful half hour in the cars and out of
them.
A very hot and dusty ride through Washington State,--part of it pretty
enough and part of it by no means so. Cars full of screaming babies,
sweltering tourists, and falling cinders that sting like dumb
mosquitoes. Rather a mixed neighborhood on the rail. An effusively
amiable evangelist bobs up almost immediately,--one of those fellows
whom no amount of snubbing can keep under. Old Probabilities is also on
board, discoursing at intervals to all who will give ear. Some quiet and
interesting folk in a state of suspense, and one young fellow--a regular
trump,--promise better things.
We reach Tacoma at 6.30 p. m.; a queer, scattering town on Commencement
Bay, at the head of Puget Sound. Very deep water just off shore. Two
boys in a sailboat are blown about at the mercy of the fitful wind; boat
on beam-ends; boys on the uppermost gunwale; sail lying flat on the
water. But nobody seems to care, not even the young castaways. Perhaps
the inhabitants of Tacoma are amphibious. Very beautiful sheet of water,
this Puget Sound; long, winding, monotonous shores; trees all alike,
straight up and down, mostly pines and cedars; shores rather low, and
outline too regular for much picturesque effect. Tacoma commands the
best view of the Sound and of Mt. Tacoma, with its fifteen thousand
perpendicular feet looming rose-pink in the heavens, and all its fifteen
glaciers seeming to glow with an inner tropic warmth. There are eighteen
hundred miles of shore-line embroidering this marvellous Sound. We are
continually rounding abrupt points, as in a river,--points so much alike
that an untutored eye can not tell one from another. Old Probabilities
industriously taking his reckonings and growing more and more
enthusiastic at every turn--especially so when the after-glow burns the
sea to a coal; it reminds him of a volcanic eruption. There are some
people who when they see anything new to them are instantly reminded of
something else they have seen, and the new object becomes second rate on
the spot. A little travel is a dangerous thing.
Pay $3.25 for my fare from Tacoma to Port Townsend, and find a moment
later that some are paying only $1 for the same accommodations.
Competition is the mother of these pleasant surprises, but it is worth
thrice the original price--the enjoyment of this twilight cruise. More
after-glow, much more, with the Olympian Mountains lying between us and
the ocean. In the foreground is a golden flood with scarlet ripples
breaking through it--a vision splendid and long continued. Air growing
quite chilly; strong draughts at some of the turns in the stream.
Surely, in this case, the evening and the morning are not the same day.
At 9.30 p. m. we approach Seattle--a handsome town, with its terraces of
lights twinkling in the gloaming. Passengers soon distribute themselves
through the darkness. I am left alone on the after-deck to watch the
big, shadowy ships that are moored near us, and the exquisite
phosphorescent light in the water--a wave of ink with the luminous trail
of a struck match smouldering across it. Far into the night there was
the thundering of freight rolling up and down the decks, and the ring of
invisible truck-wheels.
Slept by and by, and was awakened by the prolonged shriek of a steam
whistle and a stream of sunlight that poured in at my state-room window.
We were backing and slowing off Port Ludlow. Big sawmill close at hand.
Four barks lie at the dock in front of it; a few houses stand on the
hill above; pine woods crowd to the water's edge, making the place look
solemn. Surely it is a solemn land and a solemn sea about here. After
breakfast, about 8.30 o'clock, Port Townsend hove in sight, and here we
await the arrival of the Alaska boat. What an odd little town it is--the
smallest possible city set upon a hill; the business quarter huddled at
the foot of the hill, as if it had slid down there and lodged on the
very edge of the sea! The hotels stalk out over the water on stilts. One
sleeps well in the sweet salt air, lulled by the murmur of the waves
under the veranda.
I rummage the town in search of adventure; climb one hundred and fifty
steep steps, and find the highlands at the top, green, pastoral and
reposeful. Pleasant homes are scattered about; a few animals feed
leisurely in the grassy streets. One diminutive Episcopal chapel comes
near to being pretty, yet stops just short of it. But there is a kind of
unpretending prettiness in the bright and breezy heights environed by
black forest and blue sea.
A revenue cutter--this is a port of customs, please remember--lies in
the offing. She looks as if she were suspended in air, so pure are the
elements in the northland. I lean from a parapet, on my way down the
seaward face of the cliff, and hear the order, "Make ready!" Then comes
a flash of flame, a white, leaping cloud, and a crash that shatters an
echo into fragments all along the shore; while beautiful smoke rings
roll up against the sky like victorious wreaths.
I call on the Hon. J. G. Swan, Hawaiian Consul, author of "The Northwest
Coast; or, Three Years' Residence in Washington Territory." Find him
delightful, and delightfully situated in a perfect museum of Indian
relics; himself full of the liveliest recollections of Indian life, and
quite an authority on Indian tongues and traditions; find also an old
schoolmate, after long years of separation, and am most courteously
entertained. What a drive we had over the hills and along the beach,
where the crows haunt the water's edge like sea-birds! It has been
repeatedly affirmed that these crows have been seen to seize a clam,
raise it high in the air, let it drop upon a rock, and then pounce upon
the fragments and feast furiously. But I have never seen one who has had
ocular proof of this.
There was a very happy hour spent at Colonel Douglas' quarters, over at
the camp; and then such a long, long drive through the deep wildwood,
with its dense undergrowth, said to be the haunt of bear, panther, wild
cat, deer, and other large game. Bearberries grew in profusion
everywhere. The road, kept in splendid repair by the army men, dipped
into a meadow full of savage mosquitoes; but escaping through two gates,
we struck again into the forest, where the road was almost overgrown
with dew-damp brush, that besprinkled us profusely as we passed.
We paused upon the slope above Port Discovery Bay; saw an old fellow on
the porch of a wee cottage looking steadfastly into the future--across
the Bay; with pipe in mouth, he was the picture of contentment,
abstraction and repose. He never once turned to look at us, though few
pass that way; but kept his eyes fixed upon a vision of surpassing
beauty, where the vivid coloring was startling to the eye and the
morning air like an elixir. Nothing but the great summer hotel of the
future--it will surely come some day and stand right there--can rob the
spot of its blissful serenity.