Sitka goes back the farthest in historic memory of any city of the Northwest. When Lewis and Clarke came to the mouth of the Columbia River she was looking out over the Pacific from her stockaded walls and Resanof was sailing to search for locations for new colonies. When Astoria was founded she was placing her outpost on the Russian River in California. Before San Francisco was a city she sent her bidarkas to take the sea-otter from under the very noses of the Padres in their missions. Here the civilization of the East met the progress of the West, the Orient and the Occident met here and met without bloodshed. Sitka, with her wealth of fisheries in the waters at her doors, with her wealth of mineral in the ledges at her back, with the wealth of forest on the mountain slopes around her, is in the same latitude as Edinburgh, Scotland. The time is coming when she will have population, and wealth; beauty she already has. What more is wanted for the happiness of her people? Only energy, perseverance, and thrift, and those will be forthcoming. CHAPTER IX WHAT TO SEE Approaching Sitka by the usual steamer route from the north at a distance of six miles the site of Old Sitka is passed. It lies to the left of the steamer track, in a small bay, and is marked by a native house which is visible from the ship. From near this place, looking to the westward, the first sight of Mount Edgecumbe is to be had between the islands. On approaching the town the ship goes through a narrow channel between Japonski Island at the right and the townsite at the left. Near the middle of the channel a rock is marked by a buoy and along the shore is the native village, or "Ranche," with a sloping beach upon which in former days the canoes were drawn up. The paths by which they were brought from the water may be seen, marked by the rocks being thrown to each side from the track. [Illustration: Sitka--East on Lincoln Street--the Governor's Walk of the Russians.] On Japonski Island is the U. S. Naval Coaling Station and the U. S. wireless telegraph. The magnetic observatory of the Russians was situated there. The name means Japan Island and is given because Resanof designated it as the place to keep captive Japanese whom he expected to capture through his expedition against the lower Kuril Islands in 1806.