242 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



one of the wildest of all birds of prey, build their nests 

 on the tops of the withered stumps of some of the dead 

 trees, 200 feet from the ground, 50 or 100 feet of the 

 tree having fallen off. At the feet of these old veterans, 

 younger trees grow in profusion of all sizes, and at their 

 feet again, and all round, there is a sea of ferns and other 

 undergrowth. I spent all my time in this place measur- 

 ing, etc., as you can imagine. I counted two hundred 

 and sixty-seven rings on one tree of moderate growth, 

 which shows the tree was about three hundred years 

 old, and I believe some of them were standing when 

 William the Conqueror came to England ! Vancouver 

 did not exist in 1886, the site being, like all the 

 surrounding country, covered with forests. It is mostly 

 wooden houses even now, but has an air of well-to-do 

 about it. Every one is most casual in this part of the 

 world ; but I have never yet found the incivility. They 

 are all very blunt in manner, but very decent people. 

 I am not quite sure what we shall do, but, I think, go 

 on from Victoria to-morrow at 8 A.M., and get to Port- 

 land in the daytime and have a good night on board, 

 and then leave Portland the following day for San 

 Francisco." 



" VICTORIA, 

 Monday ', \bthjune. 



I found your two letters here, and one from 

 Victor. Fancy your not having yet got my first 

 letter from America, and it is now a month since 

 we landed. However, it is all right now, and by 

 the time you get this we shall have turned our faces 

 homeward. I shall be glad to get to my nest 

 again. The people in these western parts are all very 

 civil, but seem to me to be wonderfully slow of com- 

 prehension, and daft. We go by the boat to-night to 



