Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ITINERARY.—Continued. It is no small task to equip and provision a steamer, carrying two hundred persons, and get her under way for a month ; but finally all the pigs, and poultry, and cabbages, and crates of fruit, and ice, and carcasses of beef, are trundled aboard and stowed conveniently for the steward's daily deal; the sheep and hay are snugly housed between decks, and the last reluctant steer is forced up the gangway by a twist of the tail so excruciating that it wrings out a suggestion of ox-tail soup for next day's bill of fare. Then the hawsers are cast off, and the good ship swings bravely into the stream on the hope of her new departure—bound for Alaska. First, there is an eight hour's run of 70 miles to the British port of Nanaimo for coal, in the course of which, if the atmosphere be clear, the snow-clad peaks of the Cascade range of mountains will appear like a crystal rampart across the sea. There is a succession of them, rising one above the other, and looking as unreal and ethereal as a vision of fairy-land. Enchantment of the voyage begins at the very threshold of departure, and the first outlook is exhilarating with satisfying promise. Nanaimo is the headquarters of the Vancouver Coal Company, and the distributing depot of a large coal district. The coal areas of this province are widely spread, of whose product San Francisco alone takes 150,000 tons per annum. Departure Bay and Nanaimo are twin harbors connected by a deep narrow channel of ample width for navigation. The town lies along the bay, with streets quite irregular in conformity with the sinuosities of the indented shore line. A dense and continuous pine forest, underlaid by coal measures, occupies the back ground. There is an octagonal block house three stories high, which years ago did duty for...