FROM VICTORIA TO SITKA. 117 
The steamers now running between California and 
Sitka take the " inside route," passing between Vancouver 
and the mainland. Sailing vessels, however, keep to the 
open sea, where they can have steady breezes, and few 
treacherous currents, sunken reefs, or floating icebergs, 
such as render the narrower channels perilous to craft 
that can be handled only slowly. From San Francisco to 
Victoria is seven hundred and fifty miles. From that 
port to Sitka, the Buttons had still a sail before them of 
somewhat over a thousand miles. Richard Button would 
have to travel about a third of that distance, from Fort 
Wrangel, to join his sister-in-law at Sitka. With these 
distances clearly fixed in our minds, we can follow our 
friends over every league of their voyage. While Mrs. 
Button was on the St. Elias^ it may be said, in dismissing 
the subject of times and distances, her husband's party 
was travelling slowly westward through the dense ever- 
green forests of British America, just south of Great Slave 
Lake. 
The good ship St. Elias was favored with fair winds, 
and in just a fortnight from the day she sailed from Vic- 
toria the lofty peak of Mt. Edgecumbe appeared on the 
northeast horizon. 
Flossie was wild with delight at the glorious view, 
which constantly opened as the vessel kept on her course 
toward land. The coast line was everywhere broken by 
huge mountains, their rugged sides torn by avalanche and 
torrent, and seamed with glaciers, flowing steadily down- 
