6 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



fornia, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia 

 are concerned the experimental stage has been 

 passed. Mining, for instance, has become an exact 

 science. The same may be said of fruit culture, 

 viticulture, the breeding of fine horses and cattle, 

 the making of wine and oil, cereal-raising, and man- 

 ufactures. The cruiser upon whose bridge stood 

 Admiral Dewey when he entered the harbour of 

 Manila was built in San Francisco. An immense 

 battle-ship, " The Oregon," doubled Cape Horn with- 

 out misadventure, a marvellous feat. Her keel was 

 laid in the ship-yards of the West. The modern 

 war ship is a machine so complex, combining in 

 itself so many of the arts and sciences, so incom- 

 parably difficult of nice adjustment, that it would 

 seem to be the ne phcs ultra of human ingenuity 

 and mechanical skill. To the hands and brains 

 that have constructed an "Oregon" nothing can be 

 deemed impracticable. 



I shall now set forth, as briefly as may be, my 

 reasons for speaking of the Pacific Slope as the 

 land of To-morrow. The people who live in the 

 West are profoundly convinced that their country is 

 a land of to-day. More, the word " to-morrow " has 

 an offensive signification. California, for instance, 

 was once known as the land of " mafiana," a land 

 where nothing must be done to-day that could pos- 

 sibly be put off till to-morrow. 



Time has brought many changes to the Pacific 

 Slope, but none more amazing than the change from 

 ignorance and indolence to activity and intelligence. 

 But the promise of the future dwarfs the perform- 

 ance of the present. Heretofore, despite her unpar- 



