PRINCE RUPERT TO VANCOUVER, VICTORIA, SEATTLE,
AND THE GOLDEN GATE
The voyage from Prince Rupert to Alaska is unparalleled in its glory
of scenic enthralment; it is a trip unique and, indeed, quite
unrivalled by any that this terrestrial sphere has disclosed to the
wanderer over her spaces; yet hardly less interesting in a different
way is that lovely sail of two days and two nights from Prince Rupert
to Seattle, with calls at the ports of Vancouver and Victoria. The
one enchants the imagination; the other relates itself to the great
social order of human life. The latter reveals the vast resources of
British Columbia; the almost infinite possibilities for the
transcendent future of a new and still higher civilisation; the
regions of the homes, the development, the nobler and still nobler
culture of life in its evolutionary progress.
The comfort and beauty of these Grand Trunk Pacific steamers are, as
noted in the preceding chapter, responsible for much of the enjoyment
of the voyage. To be comfortable--even to have the senses gratified
with beauty in one's immediate environment--is by no means the chief
end or aim {218} of life, but it is assuredly a means to an end;
after that other things. He who is
"Alive to gentle influence
Of landscape and of sky,
And tender to the spirit-touch,"
can hardly escape the immediate sense of a reinforcement of energy by
the subtle charm of a pleasing environment. It is like the influence
of music, harmonising and co-ordinating all one's powers of
achievement.
The coast of British Columbia, stretching away to the southland, has
its own order of beauty, as has already been described in the
description of the voyage which begins at Seattle extending to
Skagway. The two days of return from Prince Rupert are only too
brief for the traveller with an eye for the singular beauty of
precipitous cliffs, forest-crowned, that rise, from the shores,
brilliantly diversified with the waterfalls, islands, and glimpses of
hanging glaciers, now and then seen under radiant skies.
For tourists who, arriving at Prince Rupert, are not able to make the
Alaskan voyage, this sail to Seattle will yet hold so much of majesty
and beauty that, while not fully compensating for the northern
cruise, is yet singularly satisfying in itself. Leaving Prince
Rupert at nine in the morning the steamer calls at Vancouver at four
in the afternoon of the next day; and hardly is she at her dock
before the enterprising municipal motor car company sends a
representative on board to announce a "one-dollar-an-hour-and-a-half"
{219} trip about the city in a number of spacious motor cars in
waiting, which offers to all who embrace the opportunity the interest
of seeing the famous Stanley Park, covering a thousand acres,
together with the Shaughnessy Heights, the marine drive, and all
points of interest, with the sightseers assured that they should be
delivered at their steamer in good time for its departure.
Vancouver's growth has been truly remarkable. It began thirty years
ago with a few log-cabins in a clearing overlooking Burrard Inlet.
In 1901 the population of the city was about 27,000; to-day, 200,000
people are citizens of Vancouver and suburbs. Its wharfs are crowded
with shipping, more than 18,000 vessels using the port in a single
year, while its customs revenue amounts to five millions of dollars
annually.
The business and residential sections of Vancouver are extremely
interesting and no tourist would willingly miss seeing something of
the largest Canadian city on the Pacific Coast. On the evening of
February 14, 1916, the first long-distance telephone conversation was
held between Vancouver and Montreal. Previous to this, telephonic
communication had been opened between New York and San Francisco, a
distance of 3400 miles; but on the occasion of the opening between
Montreal and Vancouver the human voice was heard at a distance of
4227 miles!
The marvellous progress made in telephone service {220} is
illustrated by some records dating back more than forty years. It
was in Boston in the spring of 1875 (March 10, 1875, to be exact),
that Professor Bell was first able to send an intelligible sentence
from one room to another in a building at No. 5, Exeter Place, in
that city. This message to the next room was to Thomas Augustus
Watson, and consisted of the words, "Mr. Watson, Mr. Watson, I want
you; come here." In the summer of 1915, Professor Bell sent the same
message from New York to Mr. Watson who was in San Francisco.
[Illustration: Pure Bred Jerseys, Western Canada]
Miss Kate Field, the brilliant American critic and lecturer, was
among those fascinated by Dr. Bell's initial experiments of 1875
demonstrating his new invention. Miss Field, while residing in
England, took an important part in bringing the telephone to public
notice. In the biography of Miss Field there appears a number of
extracts from her diary of this period, of which one, under the date
of January 14, 1878, runs as follows:
"Drove early to Osborne Cottage (Isle of Wight) where Sir Thomas
Biddulph invited me to come in the evening. Arrived there all fine
in my new gown at 8.30 P.M. Met Lady Biddulph, Sir Thomas, General
Ponsonby, Mrs. Ponsonby, and others. Very polite and very courteous
about telephone. I sang Kathleen Mavourneen to the Queen who was
delighted and thanked me telephonically. Sang Cuckoo Song, Comin'
Thro' the Rye, and recited Rosalind's epilogue. All delighted. Then
I went to Osborne House and met the Duke of Connaught. Experiments a
great success."
So comprehensive were Miss Field's convictions of {221} the wide
scope and resistless nature of scientific advance that she once
remarked to a friend, "I look to see science prove immortality." Her
faith in immortality was not wanting, but she believed it to be
within that order of truth which might actually be demonstrated by
science.
Victoria is only some six hours' sail from Vancouver--beautiful
Victoria, worthy of the greatest queen of the ages whose name the
city so proudly bears. Not only for its signal attractions, but as
the capital of British Columbia, Victoria has especial interest, and
the tourist who is wise will disembark and remain in this delightful
city until the next steamer arrives continuing the voyage to Seattle.
An English city dropped into the American continent is Victoria. It
is neither Canadian nor yet of the United States, but it is
practically an English city located on Vancouver Island. It is
already an important port, and the equable climate attracts residents
and visitors from the entire continent.
It is called, indeed, "the city of sunshine," and it has both wealth
and health in measure to impress the visitor, if it does not
transform him into at least a temporary resident. The aristocratic
residential district has entrancing views of the sea, islands, bays,
and mountains, and more than three miles of coast line. The beauty
of the architectural effects, the equable climate, the delightful
drives afforded by the wide asphalt-paved boulevards, and the variety
of amusements and entertainments--yachting, golf, {222} fishing,
country clubs with all manner of sports and games, together with its
good schools, numerous churches, and library, attract a population of
refinement and of a notable order of intellectuality.
To arrive at Seattle in the early dawn is to arrive at the
psychological moment.
"If them would'st view fair Melrose aright
Go visit it by pale moonlight,"
counsels Sir Walter; and to view Seattle at her most typical and
representative moment one should see her first in the golden glow of
a morning, that illuminates all her crescent harbour and reveals her
streets alive in the new energy of the day. Seattle is known as "the
Seaport of Success." She takes the opposite pole from the motto
Dante saw over the red city of Dis. Far from any abandonment of hope
by "those who enter here," the very spectacle of her eager, intense
life reinvigorates the newcomer. Has he not entered the Seaport of
Success? "If you want success--Succeed!" counsels Emerson. Of
course one will succeed in Seattle. That is what he is there for.
He is "born for the job." Seattle is the marvel of the day. One
quite sympathises with the citizen who met a press correspondent from
New York on a train and begged him to include Seattle in his glowing
interpretations. "But I was in Seattle last week," rejoined the
writer. "Oh, but you should see Seattle _now!_" replied the
up-to-date resident.
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Seattle has a population of nearly three hundred and fifty thousand;
she has four transcontinental railways; and fifty-seven steamship
lines. Lake Washington, lying just outside the city, a sheet of
water twenty-five miles in length and averaging three miles in width,
offers one of the most ideal and poetic regions for suburban homes,
and one whose privileges are apparently appreciated. The beautiful
residences that adorn its shores render it a locality well worth
seeing. The lake extends to the foothills of the Cascade range,
whose peaks, perpetually covered with ice and snow, are from five
thousand to more than fourteen thousand feet in height. With this
majestic mountain range on one hand, and Puget Sound on the other,
Seattle has an environment that rivals, in natural beauty, any other
city of the world. The boulevards of Seattle are famous, and of
these ex-President Taft declared that they formed one of the most
magnificent combinations of modern city and mediæval forest. From
these boulevards of thirty miles in extent, connecting a chain of
thirty-eight parks, there are continual vistas of lake, and sea, and
snow-capped mountains, and the drive is often among arbours and
flowers and shrubs revealing rare skill and taste in gardening.
The State of Washington has wisely inaugurated a system of splendid
roadways, whose skilful engineering has rendered the broad
boulevards, the country highways, a veritable paradise of comfort to
motorists. More than fifty thousand miles of such {224} road
thoroughfares stretch in all directions from Seattle. Four of these
great highways, those of the Pacific, Sunset, Olympic, and National
Parks, were built and are maintained at the expense of the state.
One important feature of these is the Pacific Highway, a thoroughfare
of 2000 miles in length, connecting British Columbia with the
southern limit of California. It is the longest drive of the world
and has a picturesque beauty unsurpassed by that of any known region.
Nor are the ardent residents of Seattle in any way inclined to
reticence regarding her allurements. To one voyager on board, who
was a native of the States, but who had been so spellbound by her
first wonderful trip through Canada that she longed to "assume a
virtue, though she had it not" and pass herself off as a native of
the Dominion--to this tourist a Seattle lady rather importunately
insisted that she ought to remain at least a week in the "Seaport of
Success" and revel in its amazements. "You would see parks of
hundreds of acres," exclaimed the loyal resident of the capital city
of the State of Washington, among other enumerations of the glories
to be revealed. "Oh, is that all?" unkindly responded the voyager.
"Why, in Canada we are accustomed to parks of over four thousand
square miles." The devotee of Canadian landscapes endeavoured to say
this with the air of one born and bred in the Dominion, and she was
quite charmed with her evident success when the Seattle lady {225}
replied, "Oh, you are a Canadian? I thought you were one of our own
people." "Did you, indeed?" returned the masquerading Canadian,
non-committantly, with the most innocent and unconscious air that it
was possible to assume.
[Illustration: Mount Robson, British Columbia]
It is an interesting and picturesque trip by rail from Seattle to
Portland (some seven hours) and from Portland out to its port,
Flavell-Astoria, is another picturesque little journey, some two
hours by rail. Here awaits one of the Pacific steamers of the Great
Northern Company, with its top deck glass-enclosed, making the vast
sweep of ocean view possible in all weather; with four other
promenade decks, with its ballroom, its conveniences for games of all
sorts, and its enormous crowds of gay passengers. The sail from
Flavell-Astoria to San Francisco is only thirty-six hours; too brief
for a lover of beauty, yet a great deal of enjoyment can be crowded
into that time by those who surprise the secret.
It was not only the ideal way by which to approach the Panama-Pacific
Exposition of 1915, but it remains the ideal way in which to approach
San Francisco. The first instinctive thought of the tourist is that
he can only enjoy this approach if he arrives from Hawaii, or Japan,
or some port in the Orient. On the contrary, he can enjoy one of the
great and one of the most picturesque trips that the resources of
this world afford, by journeying to California, via Prince Rupert,
and on, by sea, by land, by sea again, through Vancouver and Seattle;
{226} thence by way of Portland, and Flavell-Astoria, to the
triumphant entrance by the Golden Gate. It was a marvellous tour for
the vanished Exposition summer of 1915, and it will remain marvellous
for all the summers to come, growing as the years pass more
beautiful, more feasible, and more familiar to the travelling public.
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