Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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A large proportion of the sailors in the Royal Navy have, or will at some period, pass some time on the Pacific station, in which case, they will inevitably go to Vancouver Island, where there is much to interest them.106 They will find Victoria a very pretty little town, with Government house, cathedral, churches and chapels, a mechanics’ institute, a theatre, good hotels and restaurants—the latter generally in French hands. He will find a curious mixture of English and American manners and customs, and a very curious mixture of coinage—shillings being the same as quarter-dollars, while crowns are only the value of dollars (5s., against 4s. 2d.). Some years ago the island system was different from that of the mainland; on the latter, florins were equal to half-dollars (which they are, nearly), while on the island they were 37½ cents only (1s. 7½d.). The Hudson’s Bay Company, which has trading-posts throughout British Columbia, took advantage of the fact to give change for American money, on their steamers, in English florins, obtaining them on the island. They thus made nearly twenty-five per cent. in their transaction, besides getting paid the passenger’s fare. Yet the traveller, strange to say, did not lose by this, for, on landing at New Westminster, he found that what was rated at a little over eighteenpence on Vancouver Island, had suddenly, after travelling only seventy miles or so, increased in value to upwards of two shillings!