Mark is entranced by an altocumulous undulatus cloud show in the sky. He tells the history of the gold strike in Ballarat and the protests against the mining licensing tax. He then speaks of the refinements of Australian cities and the compact Ballarat English.
Twain travels from Adelaide to Horsham, in Victoria. He finds a cottonwood tree, of fine detail, like a Kodak, and a peppertree, like an impressionist painting. Outside of town is an agricultural college, the Longerenong Agricultural College, where they grow fruit trees in an arid environment. They had forty pupils, ten were farmers hoping to expand their skills, and the rest city boys getting a trade. The curricula included sheep shearing.
Twain spends most of this chapter illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of the aboriginal peoples, whom he believes are all but extinct. He never met one on his travels in Australia. He stresses the talents of these people, particularly their ability to discern minute details of the landscape, making them superlative hunters and trackers. He describes their ability in drawing as somewhere between De Maurier and Boticelli. Twain gets particular delight in discussing the aboriginal's tolerance for physical pain as well as their adroitness.
Mark Twain discovers the weet-weet, a two ounce projectile that can be thrown over two hundred yards. The intelligence required for this, as well as aboriginal tracking ability and the boomerang prompts Twain to question why Australian Aboriginals are held in such low esteem. He goes on to illustrate that savage ways the whites have used to deal with those they deem to be savages.
Sam Clemens, wife wife Livy and daughter Clara depart from the North American continent after speaking engagements in Vancouver and Victoria. Narration is from Major Pond's reminiscences published in Eccentricities of Genius.
Mark Twain and company complete the journey from Elmira, New York to the Pacific Ocean, in preparation for his around the world tour. He speaks in Portland, Oregon, Olympia, Washington and Tacoma, Seattle, Whatcom, which became Bellingham, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The entire Pacific Northwest was envolped in smoke from forest fires and Mark suffered from respiratory problems. He visits one more city, Victoria, British Columbia, to speak and depart on the voyage to Australia.
Mark Twain and his party travel on the Northern Pacific Railway from Tacoma, Washington to Portland, Oregon. At this time there was not a direct connection but the train needed to be taken aboard a ferry at Kalama, Washington and transported across the Columbia River to Goble, Oregon and then on into Portland.
An excerpt from Autobiography of Mark Twain, volume 3. Maria McManus was Clara Clemens' wet nurse until she was weaned. In a later reference Twain wrote "give her all the beer and whisky and brandy and tobacco and green fruit and lemon-pie she might want, and turn her loose on the nursery, and have no solicitude about the results."
Mark Twain and his party complete their journey to the Pacific on this leg from Skykomish to Tacoma. The railroad terminus was Seattle followed by a steamboat ride to Tacoma. This video explores the histories of Snohomish, Index, Monroe and Everett. We ponder the loses of the native Americans with the Treaty of Point Elliot and marvel at the performance of the fast little steamboat called The Flyer of Puget Sound.
August 8th of 1895 Mark Twain rides with an engineer and fireman on the Great Northern Railroad train passing over the Cascades on the switchbacks. This is the route followed before either of the Cascades tunnels were built.