38 VICTORIA AS IT WAS. 
water-sites were obtainable, the noise of busy in- 
dustry sounded pleasantly in contrast to the 
mingled hubbub I had just left. Higher up the 
slope, substantial stores were being rapidly built. 
Out of these germs grew the present town the 
capital of the island, that we shall often have to 
visit in the course of this narrative. 
With the island, and its history as a colony, I 
have but little to do. Other and more able 
writers have said all that need or can be told 
about its commerce, agriculture, politics, and 
progress. The prairie, forest, lake, river, sea, 
estuary, and rocky inlet are my domains; to 
their tenants I have to introduce you, guide 
you to their homes and haunts, and bring you 
face to face, in imagination, with the zoological 
colony of the Far North-west. 
First, of the island. Vancouver Island is situ- 
ated between the parallels of 48° 20” and 51° 
N. lat., and in from 123° to 128° W. long—its 
shape, oblong; length, 300 miles; its breadth, 
varying at different points, may be taken at an 
average of from 35 to 50 miles. The island may 
be characterised as an isolated ridge of moun- 
tains, which attain, at their greatest elevation, an 
altitude of about 6,000 feet. There are no navi- 
gable rivers, but numerous mountain-streams, 
