1 84 A SPORTSMAN'S EDEN. 



parties during my three weeks' sojourn in Victoria. 

 So that I have not been such a very desolate 

 and forlorn person in my husband's absence. 

 All through the summer a stream of English 

 visitors keeps passing through the town, bringing 

 memories of, and messages from, home to the 

 settlers. 



I wish I could sketch, that I might be saved 

 a description of Victoria ; but I cannot, so you 

 must have it in pen and ink. The houses are 

 most of them of wood, gabled, and painted white, 

 detached, of course, and for the most part sur- 

 rounded by pretty gardens, some of which are 

 very gay with flowers. At the top of the town 

 is the cathedral, and from that point the houses 

 run down to the blue waters of the Straits of 

 San Juan de Fuca. Behind our house lies a 

 beautiful park-like expanse, unenclosed, but re- 

 served as a public recreation-ground. From the 

 edge of it you can look across the waters to the 

 snow peaks of the Olympian range ; and if you 

 turn away from them and the water you see that 

 the forest hedges in the town. To give you an 

 idea of the way in which extremes meet here, 

 and how near the forest is to the centre of 

 Government, let me tell you what occurred last 

 week to one of the officers of the flag-ship 

 stationed here. He was on shore somewhere 



