Part 5

One steamship leaves Tacoma for Alaska during the season of 1890, about every fifteen days, from June to September.

The Ocean steamers sail every fourth day from Portland to San Francisco.

There are semi-weekly boats between Portland and Corvallis, and tri-weekly between Portland and Salem.

On the Sound there are three boats each way, daily (except Sunday), between Tacoma and Seattle; one boat each way, daily (except Sunday), between Tacoma and Victoria; one boat each way, daily (except Sunday), between Seattle and Whatcom, and one boat, daily (except Sunday), between Whatcom and Seminahmoo.

Only one class of tickets is sold on the River and Sound boats; on the Ocean steamers there are two classes: cabin and steerage. The steerage passengers on the Ocean steamers have a dining-room separate from the first-class passengers--on the lower deck--and are given abundance of wholesome food, tea and coffee.

On River and Sound boats, a ticket does not include meals and berths, but it does on the ocean voyage, or the Alaska trip. The usual price for meals is 50 cents, and they will be found uniformly excellent. Breakfast, lunch, and a 6 o'clock dinner are served.

The price of berths on these boats runs from 50 cents for a single berth to $3 per day for the bridal chamber.

No liquors of any kind are kept on sale on any River or Sound steamer, but a small stock of the best brands will be found on the Ocean steamers.

State-rooms on the River and Sound steamers are provided with one double lower and one single upper berth.

Passengers can, if they choose, purchase the full accommodation of a state-room.

The steerage capacity of each of the three Ocean steamers is about 300.

The diagram of the Ocean steamers and the night boats to Astoria can always be found at the Union Ticket Office of the Union Pacific Railway in Portland, corner First and Oak Streets.

Tourists receive more than an ordinary amount of attention on these steamers, more than is possible to pay them on a railway train. The pursers will be found polite and obliging, always ready to point out places of interest and render those little attentions which go so far toward making travel pleasant.

On River and Sound boats, the forward cabin is generally the smoking-room, the cabin amidships is used for a "Social Hall," and the "After Saloon" is always the ladies' cabin.

All Union Pacific steamers in the Ocean service are heated with steam and lighted with electricity; all have pianos and a well-selected library. The beds on these boats are well-nigh perfect, woven-wire springs and heavy mattresses. They are kept scrupulously clean--the company is noted for that--and the steerage is as neat as the main saloon.

One hundred and fifty pounds of baggage is allowed free on board both boats and trains.

Boats leaving terminal points at any time between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., arrange so that passengers can go on board after 7 p.m. and retire to their state-rooms, thus enjoying an unbroken night's rest.

Sea-sickness is never met with on the Sound, and very rarely on the voyage from Portland to San Francisco. On the Pacific, the ship is never out of sight of land, and the sea is as smooth as a mill-pond.

The heaviest swell encountered is going over the Columbia River Bar. The ocean is uniformly placid during the summer months. The trip, with its freedom from the dust, rush, and roar of a train, and the inexorable restraint one always feels on the cars, is a delightful one, and with larger comforts and more luxurious surroundings, one enjoys the added pleasure of courteous and thoughtful service from the various officers of the ship.

Taking the "Columbia" as a sample of the class of steamships in the Union Pacific fleet, we notice that she is 334 feet long, 2,200 horse-power, nearly 3,000 tonnage, has 65 state-rooms, and can accommodate 200 saloon and 200 steerage passengers. Steam heat and electric light are used. In 1880 the first plant from Edison's factory was put on board the "Columbia," at that time a great curiosity, she being the first ship to use the incandescent light.

CRATER LAKE.

Crater Lake is situate in the northwestern portion of Klamath county, Oregon, and is best reached by leaving the Southern Pacific Railroad at Medford, which is 328 miles south of Portland, and about ninety miles from the lake, which can be reached by a very good wagon road. The lake is about six miles wide by seven miles long, but it is not its size which is its beauty or its attraction. The surface of the water in the lake is 6,251 feet above the level of the sea, and is surrounded by cliffs or walls from 1,000 to over 2,000 feet in height, and which are scantily covered with timber, and which offer at but one point a way of reaching the water. The depth of the water is very great, and it is very transparent, and of a deep blue color. Toward the southwestern portion of the lake is Wizard Island, 845 feet high, circular in shape, and slightly covered with timber. In the top of this island is a depression, or crater--the Witches' Caldron--100 feet deep, and 475 feet in diameter, which was evidently the last smoking chimney of a once mighty volcano, and which is now covered within, as without, with volcanic rocks. North of this island, and on the west side of the lake, is Llao Rock, reaching to a height of 2,000 feet above the water, and so perpendicular that a stone may be dropped from its summit to the waters at its base, nearly one-half mile below.

So far below the surrounding mountains is the surface of the waters in this lake, that the mountain breezes but rarely ripple them; and looking from the surrounding wall, the sky and cliffs are seen mirrored in the glassy surface, and it is with difficulty the eye can distinguish the line where the cliffs leave off and their reflected counterfeits begin.

OREGON NATIONAL PARK.

Townships 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31, in Ranges 5 and 6 east of the Willamette meridian, are asked to be set apart as the Oregon National Park. This area contains Crater Lake and its approaches. The citizens of Oregon unanimously petitioned the President for the reservation of this park, and a bill in conformity with the petition passed the United States Senate in February, 1888.

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Third Tour.--From Portland to Port Townsend, Seattle, and Tacoma.

WASHINGTON