The fiords indenting the whole line of coast run into the Cascade Range. Their shores rise perpendicularly to peaks, often a perpendicular mile from the water’s edge, while the water is so sheltered as to be without a ripple and lies dark and fathomless at their base. Travellers relate how, in the solitude of the wilderness, sounds have come upon them as of muffled thunder. It is the descent of an avalanche from a glacier, miles away from them; or one of those mountain slides of earth and trees which occur in the summer heat in the lands at high elevation. These spectacles are among the most wonderful movement of the earth’s forces. I have spoken of some of these phenomena as traces of them passed under my notice. It would be difficult to find in any one of the four continents more majestic or more varied scenery, marked by more of Nature’s fertility of resource in grouping together scenes of astonishing grandeur. I do not except Switzerland, with which no comparison can be made, for British Columbia has a character of its own. It must be seen to be appreciated. CHAPTER XXII. _HOME BY THE NORTHERN PACIFIC._ Puget Sound--The Columbia--Portland--Oregon and San Juan Disputes--Arid Country--Mountain Summits--The Yellowstone--The Missouri--The Red River--Chicago--Standard Time Meeting--The British Association--Home. The fog had become less dense on the early Monday morning we were leaving Victoria to cross to Puget Sound, to proceed thence to Portland, in Oregon. We had now entered on October. It was the first of the month. My object in taking this route was to pass over the Northern Pacific Railway. It seemed to me in every way desirable, that correct information should be obtained of the nature of the country through which that line passes, and I had already travelled over the Central Pacific line from San Francisco. The last spike had been driven when we were in the Valley of the Ille-celle-waet, and the opening ceremonies had been celebrated on an unusually large scale, three weeks back, before we had finished our journey across the Selkirk Range. We had crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We had passed over the four ranges of mountains by a hitherto partly unsurveyed route, and I had satisfied myself as to the possibility of establishing the railway on the line we had traversed. The journey we made was the first of its kind, and no limited portion of the distance had proved exceedingly trying. In a few years the railway connection will be completed, and what a field for travel will then be opened to those who desire to visit the boldest and most majestic of Nature’s scenes which the traveller will be able to visit with very little effort.