Britannic Majesty. Neither high nor low, but rising handsomely out of the water; indented with numerous coves, bays, and arms of the sea; its shore being dotted with trees, rather than heavily wooded, with some handsome villas in sight from the steamer, Vancouver's Island makes a good impression at the moment of approach—has, in fact, one of the handsomest approaches to its principal city of any country fronting on the Pacific.
It is impossible to have seen Victoria, the capital of the British possessions on the Pacific, and not give it a passing notice at least. It is so in our way when traveling on the North-west Coast, as not only not to be avoided, but to seem as one of our own proper belongings. The ocean steamers from San Francisco and Portland, though they no longer make this a point of destination as they did in the times of mining excitement on Frazer's River, still call here. The Sound steamers run direct between Olympia and Victoria. There is a large American element in the place, and its contiguity to American soil very strongly suggests identical interests.
The harbor of Victoria is very small, with a narrow and crooked entrance. The site of the town was not selected with reference to a future metropolis, but only as a supply-station of the Hudson's Bay Company, after their removal from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River. The beauty of the location probably had its proper weight with the gentlemanly managers of the Hudson's Bay Company. Should the future of the city ever demand it, Esquimault Harbor could be opened into Victoria Harbor by a canal across the peninsula on which the city stands, in which case there would be ample room and depth of water.
