In Stanley Park there are huge old fir trees and miles of paths through the tangled forest. One can sit and sketch the great brown trunks of firs and cedars, set off by the delicate green of vine maple and salmon-berry, or the flowers and lawns of the cultivated park. The rock-gardens are beautiful at nearly all times of the year in our mild climate; and if one cares for animal studies, there are many interesting creatures, from badgers to bears, in the zoo.

English Bay provides splendid material for one's sketch-book. Near by are Coal Harbour and the Lost Lagoon. False Creek, too, has its hour of beauty when the sunset turns the smoke of the sawmills to splendid colour, with the orange light of the sawdust-burners beginning to glow, when the water lies flat and blue, splashed with the brown and orange of great booms of logs pulled by little tugs. A subject for a Turner.

Then there is Fairview with its view of the city strung out against a background of harbour and mountain; Kitsilano and Point Grey with their views of snow-capped mountains and the sea; Shaughnessy Heights, and its many fine houses and lawns, Marine Drive with its woods, its beautiful homes and its gardens.

On the delta lands of the Fraser, there are the Chinese gardens, where yellow men in huge conical hats work in the geometrically patterned fields. These flat fields stretch back to where a row of cottonwoods and Mount Baker -- rising in the distance like a pearl in an opal sky -- complete the picture. Steveston offers Japanese fishing-boats, dykes with little wooden bridges leading to little shabby houses, and tiny gardens full of purple iris and pink daisies: where family wash in brilliant colours is displayed across the front verandah, and the little brown Japanese children crowd around and stick their fingers in your paint.

The north shore of the inlet has great variety, -- from the rocky headlands and little sandy coves to the canyons of Capilano, Lynn and Seymour. From Grouse Mountain unfolds a glorious panorama of city and gulf and the higher peaks of Crown and the Lions.

There is a wonderful view of the Lions from Vancouver Heights, as also of the Inlet and the North Arm. The North Arm is rugged and impressive, as is Howe sound with its mountains rising straight from the sea.

Victoria, on Vancouver Island, is a beautiful place, like an old English town transplanted to this far edge of the world. Spring is the time for sketching there, when the glory of the broom is on Beacon Hill and the ground under the rock trees is covered with wild flowers. Within easy reach are many rocky bays with glimpses of the snow-capped Olympics and ships coming in from the straits of Juan de Fuca.

Esquimalt is worth seeing and sketching, and the Malahat Drive takes you across the island through some of the finest standing timber still left to us. At Port Alberni you get some good material around the Canal. There are some picturesque Indians, too, and you can catch the full force of the Pacific as it thunders in on the rocky coast and tramps the sandy beaches.

From Vancouver you can take a steamer up the inside passage. The coast is rugged and wild, and there are many long arms of the sea reaching back for miles to high mountains that rise straight out of the water, on whose flat, mirror-like surface they cast their beautiful reflections. Water-falls and rushing streams greet the eye, while an occasional logging camp may be seen working away like a fussy and destructive insect at the edge of the vast green forest.

There are many islands in the inside passage. Some are rocky and barren; others are tree-covered, with here and there a sandy beach. Savary Island is one of the most beautiful. It is only five miles long and a half a mile broad, but its variety seems almost inexhaustible to one who sketches. It is crescent-shaped and has a beach of white sand right around, except for one rocky point where it drops off into the channel. On the inside of the crescent the trees come down to the water in a series of bays, on one of which is a row of pretty summer cottages. The south shore has high white sand cliffs, where yellow broom and gumweed grow, and at the top of these cliffs the trees are blown to strange shapes by the wind. The beaches of Savary are interesting to anyone wanting material for design. There are reefs and sand-bars, with rock-pools where you may gather beautiful sea-weeds, shells, and queer sea creatures. The rocks at the point are covered below high-tide mark with starfish in all shades of purple and rose; while on the sand-bar close by are millions of sea-biscuits with a beautiful design on their backs.

At Hope, only a few hours distant from Vancouver, the sketching is good. The little town itself is very pretty. It is old, and there are plenty of open spaces and large trees. There is a quaint church back in a dark grove, like a church in a fairy-tale forest. An old Indian orchard stands by the river. Near by is another quaint church with tall Lombardy poplars beside its gate, and lilacs and rosemary beside its door. The Fraser rushes by in a great yellow curve, and the high mountains hem it in, though not too close for sketching. The mountain of the Holy Cross is particularly fine.

Harrison Lake is very beautiful, shut in by mountains, and the lake takes on a most wonderful jade green colour when the wind strikes it, -- and there is usually a wind. On your way there it is well worth while spending a day at Agassiz to sketch Mount Cheam.

Many beautiful spots are to be found in the Fraser Valley: Hatzic Slough, for instance; and nearer Vancouver, Pitt Meadows and Pitt Lake. The flat, rich valley lands with their winding sloughs, bordered with willows and cottonwoods, contrast with the grandeur of the mountains in the background.

Another beautiful place is D'Arcy, on Anderson Lake. It is just on the edge of the dry belt, where the coast vegetation gives way to yellow pine, and the sage-brush begins. The yellow pine is an extremely decorative tree with orange-colored bark, deeply scored, long needles and distinctive cones. The lake itself is very deep, and the mountains rise on all sides, very high and rugged. Cottonwoods, thickets of syringa and a very picturesque Indian village add to the charm. On the way to D'Arcy is the Cheakamus Canyon, a thrilling sight; Alta Lake has many attractions; and, for the more ambitious, there is Garibaldi Park, with its mountain meadows, carpeted with flowers and its views of the high peaks.

These are a few of the places within easy reach of Vancouver, and they are all worth while.

M. Sherman.