Aboard the '' Bear'' 205 



age, and found the grass growing through the steps, 

 and some lonely flowers blooming along the walks. 

 Still there is a good church building and parsonage, 

 fully paid for, and a membership of about one hun- 

 dred and fifty. The city was projected upon the 

 expectation that it would become the great western 

 entrepot. A very handsome custom-house and post- 

 office building, large enough for a city of a quarter 

 of a million, was erected. The mistake was in sup- 

 posing that it would be reached by the transconti- 

 nental railways, which are shut off from it by the 

 great and practically unexplored Olympic range, and 

 by the Sound. The railroads went to Tacoma and 

 Seattle, and between these two cities the contest 

 began for the occidental crown, which, from present 

 appearances, will be won by Seattle. Port Town- 

 send has no railway connections. 



As we passed out of Puget Sound, May 27th, we 

 noticed that a snow-storm was prevailing in the 

 mountains. Then came those long Pacific swells 

 possible to this vast ocean alone. There was a stiff 

 breeze, of which advantage was taken to reinforce 

 the steam-power with the sails, and the slow old 

 cutter bowled along ten knots per hour, which is 

 her fastest. It was some consolation to know that 

 some of the officers and crew were seasick. It took 

 away the reproach of being a web-footed tenderfoot. 



I imagined that soup and a squall would not pull 

 in harness together. I obtained that impression on 

 the Atlantic when one got the soup in his lap and 



