Matterhorn of the new world, the ascent of which, after several unsuccessful attempts, was made in the autumn of 1901, by the Rev. James Outram and a party of Swiss guides. The way to it leads through beautiful valleys studded with transparent blue lakes and parklike prairie openings.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver, the chief commercial capital of the western half of the Canadian-American continent, is situated on the extreme western shore of the mainland of British Columbia, a distance of fifty miles north of the International boundary, overlooking the Gulf of Georgia, which, with Vancouver Island and the Straits of Juan de Fuca, lies between the city and the open Pacific Ocean. Vancouver was founded in 1886, and has a population of 85,000. Its commercial supremacy is based on the fact that it is the natural gateway for Canadian and British-Oriental trade and that it is the converging point of several transcontinental railway lines, as well as the port of trans-Pacific shipping. Chief among the transcontinental lines having their terminals at this point, is the Canadian Pacific Railway, with through and direct connections from Liverpool and all European ports via Montreal and St. John, and navigating its own steamships to Japan and China. The journey from Montreal to Vancouver occupies 96 hours. There is a regular steamship service to the Orient from Vancouver. The time from Vancouver to Yokohama is fourteen days; to Hong Kong 22 days, wirh intervening calls at Kobe, Nagasaki and Shanghai.

Next in importance is the trade with the Antipodes, carried on by the Canadian-Australian line, with a trio of ships called the Aorangi, the Moana and Makura. The sailings on this line are monthly, the time between

Vancouver and Sydney, (N.S.W.), being approximately thirty days, with calls at Honolulu, Suva and Brisbane. Both the Canadian-Pacific and the Canadian-Australian are Royal Mail S. S. lines and close connections are made with the fast through mails from Liverpool.

A "Four-Weekly-Service'' between California points, Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador Honduras and Nicaragua is also maintained. The trade between these and Canadian ports is rapidly increasing in importance. Among other "freighters' calling regularly at the port of Vancouver, are those of the Ocean S.S. Co., and the China Mutual Steam Navigation Co., operating a monthly service to Liverpool via Japan, China and the Suez Canal.

The local service between Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle is triangular and three magnificent steamers are engaged in the trade. Morning and afternoon sailings are made for Victoria; the distance is 75 miles, and the time occupied, four hours. From Seattle to Vancouver

150 miles, the time taken is nine hours.

Daily communication is also maintained with Nanaimo, the centre of Vancouver Island coal mining industries. This port is forty miles distant and the journey occupies three hours. The "Coastwise'' service is sup

plied by a flotilla of steamers operated by numerous steamship companies having their head offices in Vancouver. By means of these the whole coast line as far north as Alaska, Queen Charlotte Island and northern British Columbia coast ports is covered. Sailings are regularly scheduled and average four a week. All the Coastwise steamships of the Puget Sound service also call at Vancouver on their way to and from the North. In addition to the freight and passenger delivery from the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Great Northern Railway operates three trains daily each way between Vancouver and Seattle, while extensive plans for ad

ditional terminal facilities have been filed by this Company, and the work of grading and dock building is already under way. Other American transcontinental lines have also charters for rights-of-way to this terminal, and construction is being planned, while several new lines from the interior of British Columbia, having chartered rights to reach the coast, are hastening construction, so as to bring the whole of the vast interior of the province within a few hours travel from Vancouver. Charters were obtained at the last session of the legislature for lines to extend to the north in various directions and undertakings have been given that the work of construction will begin at once.

A single glance at the geographical position of Vancouver will show how suitable was its selection as a -terminus for these numerous railways and steamship lines. Burrard Inlet, the landlocked harbour, entered through a narrow channel, wide, deep and sheltered, affords one of the best anchorages in the world, while its fourteen odd miles of water front affords facilities that for wharf and dockage are unsurpassed among the ports of the world. False Creek, a second waterway at the south of the business section of the city, needing only inconsiderable artificial development, affords another channel for docking big ships, and a shore line furnishing many miles of factory and mill front.

The business portion of the city occupies the centre of a gently elevated peninsula, which slopes northward southward and westward to salt water. The oldest and most fashionable residential section is in the West End, occupying the terraces between the business portion and Stanley Park, with its shore line at English Bay. Otherwise, the suburban residential sections are in the east and across False Creek, from which they slope southward and eastward like the terraces of a vast natural amphitheatre.