8o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



LIFE IN A SEASIDE SUMMER SCHOOL. 



By Professor CHARLES E. BESSEY, 



THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 



LATE one night in August I boarded the staunch little steamer 

 ' Queen City/ at Victoria, and steamed out upon the Strait of 

 Juan de Fuca, and up the western coast of Vancouver Island. This 

 remarkable body of water, fifteen miles wide and seventy miles long, 

 is the common gateway for British and American vessels. The treaty 

 which settled the boundary dispute many years ago (1846) fixed the 

 international line in the middle of the strait, so that each country 

 has a broad and deep water passage to the Pacific Ocean. As we pro- 

 ceed northwesterly up the coast on the British side of the strait, the 

 rugged and rock-bound coast of Vancouver Island rises on our right, 

 while across the water is the Olympic coast of Washington. Of both 

 shores little more is known than the mere coast line and a narrow 

 strip near the water. Back of the shore line are foothills running 

 back to the mountains still beyond them and covered all the way with 

 dense and almost impenetrable forests of cedar (Thuya plicata) and 

 fir (Abies amabilis). We steam along slowly, for this is a dangerous 

 coast, and there is a heavy swell on the water and enough fog in the 

 air to obscure the details of the shore line. 



It is broad daylight when we turn into the deep harbor of Port 

 Renfrew, almost directly opposite Cape Flattery, and come up to the 

 long wharf. Here we find Jackson, the genial little Englishman, 

 who fills the several offices of harbormaster, postmaster, storekeeper 

 and hotelkeeper. When the boat comes in from Victoria, as it does 

 once in a week or ten days, Jackson is a very busy man, but then he 

 has a long time in which to recuperate before the next arrival of the 

 boat. While he is looking after the freight and luggage, and sorting 

 over the mail, we go to the big summer hotel and ask ' Jim,' the 

 Chinaman, to get an early breakfast for two. My companion is a 

 genial geologist, who has been here before, and knows Jim, and how 

 to persuade him into complying without too great delay. While 

 waiting for breakfast we look northward over the harbor to the foot- 

 hills which surround it, and whose sides are covered with dense 

 forests down to the water's edge. I have rarely looked upon a scene 

 of such natural beauty, and stood long feasting my eyes upon sky 

 and mountain, and forest and water. 



