Vancouver Island : its resources and capabilities, as a colony / by Charles Forbes.

  • Forbes, Charles.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vancouver Island : its resources and capabilities, as a colony / by Charles Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and approaches another “ Guiding Star” for the adventurous seaman, “The Flashing Light ” on the Race Rocks ; rounding which, a magnificent Panorama opens to his view'; a picture which, viewed by the warm sunlight of a fine Autumnal day, can nowhere be surpassed for beauty of outline, or richness and variety of colouring. On his immediate left, are the rounded trappean hills of Vancouver, covered nearly to the summits by a thick vegetation, the purple tints of the bold outstanding rocks mingling in harmony of tone, with the dark green of the Pine and of the Oak. while below, in the vallies, and lower grounds, the cool greys of the rounded rock masses, fringed by a thick carpet of purple brown fern, join with the Autumnal orange tints of the Maple, and the bright, yet tender green of the Alder and the Willow, to form a mass of colour, on which the eye dwells with delight. Before the observer, stretches an undulating park-like Country, backed by wvooded hills of moderate height—the sea face formed of a succession of low, rounded, rocky promontories, with outlying reefs and Islands. From Fis- gard light, which, like a watchful sentinel, guards the entrance to the harbour of Esquimalt, past Victoria harbour, Beacon Hill, and, sweeping on by Cad- borough Bay, this same character of country obtains ; its sloping pastures, Studded with oak and maple, giving, from their general appearance, the idea, of a country long occupied by civilized man, and covered with flocks and herds To the North, outlying groups of Islands, some low and undulating, others bold and picturesque, stud and spring from the glassy sea. And in the East, the horizon is bounded by the American Continent, grandly outlined and defined by the noble proportions of Mount Baker, towering in its mantle of perpetual snow, from the giant shoulder of which, stretches, in a South Easterly direction, the serrated snow clad range of the Cascades. Vancouver in his “ Voyage,” thus speaks of a portion of this locality, and his special description, has a general application : “To describe the beauties of this region, will, on some future occasion, be a very grateful task to the pen of the skilful panegyrist. The serenity of the climate, the innumerable pleasing landscapes, and the abundant fertility, that unassisted nature puts lorth, require only to be enriched by the industry of man, with villages, man- sions, cottages, and other buildings, to render it the most lovely country that can.be imagined, whilst the labour ot the inhabitants would be amply rewarded in the bounties which nature seems ready to bestow on cultivation.” Thus Vancouver wrote, in May 1782, nearly 80 years ago, and the field is still unoccupied, still open, calling for the labour of man, to regulate its wild luxuriance, and develope its latent wealth. The first, the initiatory steps have been taken, however, for the occupation of this fruitful, smiling land; and the industry of man will soon complete the lovely scene, which, with prophetic eye, its discoverer so clearly foresaw, and which he so eloquently foretold. Situated between the parallels of 48° 20 and 51° N. Lat. in from 123° to 128° W. Long. Vancouver, from its insular' position, enjoys a climate much less rigorous, and more equable, than the corresponding area, on the continent off the shores of -which it lies. Of an elongated oblong form, it is essentially a mountain ridge, attaining, at Mount Arrowsmitb, an elevation of 5,900 feet, composed of metamorphic and trappean rocks, fringed by a belt of carboniferous sandstones and other sedi-