Alaska Notes Summer of 1890, 1890 [1895; 1912?], Image 10

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2019
• Subjects: Hudson; Hudson Bay; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-a2/10; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmn-a2/article/1009/type/native/viewcontent/MuirReel33_Notebook02_Img010.jpg

14 of Juan de Fuca our sea sick passengers began to walk again [and reappear on deck. Most of them lay down] They had been lying in their coffin-like bunks as soon as the waves began to sing [arose] & thus lost the best of the [breezy ocean] scenery. We arrived at Victoria early on the morning of the 17th in a bland gentle rain, the kind that keeps the forests fresh & develops the wonderful luxuriance of vegetation for which this & the adjacent regions are famous [noted]. In these few fine days we have reached another climate & country of people. Victoria is an English town, English in dress, in walk, in gestures, accent, ways of doing business, in the style of their homes, etc. In their orchards & gardens you will find the [old] favorite flowers, such as the honeysuckle, [&] tulip & mountain ash all [in great abundance &] flourishing [in the bland] showery weather if possible better than in their old home. & the best of loved English currant & gooseberry [also] & [the] favorite apples & pears. It is [a] pleasant [thing] to see the pride & privacy of the English home transplanted to this [far northern] young [exuberant] wilderness. The merchant, his day’s business done loves to retire to his residence well back from the noise of the street & shut in by hedges & fences making a small private world for himself & family [&] when in the old style he can entertain his friends but where the stranger may not enter without formal invitation or even look [Where the Queen dare not]. Victoria is situated on the south east end of Vancouver Island 15 It has grown to its present fair size [dimensions] from the beginning of a Hudson Bay fort & factory. [The Hudson Bay buildings] The old block houses of that famous Co. [company] are still standing & their business of fur gathering from the wildernesses still goes on [though in greatly diminished volume]. A vivid picture of wild life rises into view at sight of the thousands of skins piled in their ...