Rubye & I have been taking the month of August off for vacation to escape the California summer heat for years....We usually drive to British Columbia and stay in Victoria....What a lovely city...very cosmopolitan.....very friendly.......wonderful restaurants.......wonderful people.....a walking city..... On our first trip to Victoria many years ago, we took the harbor tour taxi "up to the gorge" about 2 miles from downtown Victoria....The water taxi tour guide told us about "old Victoria"....he pointed out various points of interest and explained how the people of Victoria love the water of the harbor and the waters leading "up island" to the gorge....He pointed out how the hour glass shape of the gorge would allow water into the upper area as the tide rose & as the tide dropped..... the tide water would reverse and create a reversing falls at the narrowest point. This location was the site of the Two Mile Pub (1860's).....Rubye & I looked at the water in the upper harbor....crystal clear....salt water with an average high tide depth of 20 feet.....If a person was so willing (and we were) they might find a bottle or two near the site of the old pub.
The next year we drove back to Victoria with Kyaks & SCUBA......I remember it like it was yesterday....I found an apartment building close to "the gorge". The apartment managers were the nicest people & after I explained that I wanted to dive the gorge they allowed me to park in their vistor parking area & trespass over their property to the water. I put on an aluminum 80 (80 cubic feet of air) and slipped into the water.....I swam across the gorge (about 300 feet) to the other side & began to search an old dock area.....I noticed a lump in the dark silt & brushed it aside to uncover the center beer bottle pictured below....The bottle is a quart blob top...it is full face embossed : The Phoenix Brewery (picture of a Phoenix arising from flames} Victoria, British Columbia... This bottle is not to be sold....The bottle was buried in the silt, which inhibited any marine growth.....The bottle is sparkling mint....
After several dives I recovered the three pictured bottles.... a Union Brewing Company Limited trade mark ( Sheaf of Wheat in circle) Nanaimo B.C. This Bottle Not For Sale....again full face embossed ....a Victoria Brewing Co Victoria B.C. on the reverse Not to be sold .....and the third bottle the Phoenix.....All are in as found condition......We found other bottles covered in marine growth from laying on the bottom above the silt....some with sea weed attached...some with barnacles....the buried bottles were mostly in very fine condition.
I know a long story.....[
] You had to be there.....Not that I didn't try to take you....[]
Pictured are three British Columbia treasures for your pleasure.
The next year we drove back to Victoria with Kyaks & SCUBA......I remember it like it was yesterday....I found an apartment building close to "the gorge". The apartment managers were the nicest people & after I explained that I wanted to dive the gorge they allowed me to park in their vistor parking area & trespass over their property to the water. I put on an aluminum 80 (80 cubic feet of air) and slipped into the water.....I swam across the gorge (about 300 feet) to the other side & began to search an old dock area.....I noticed a lump in the dark silt & brushed it aside to uncover the center beer bottle pictured below....The bottle is a quart blob top...it is full face embossed : The Phoenix Brewery (picture of a Phoenix arising from flames} Victoria, British Columbia... This bottle is not to be sold....The bottle was buried in the silt, which inhibited any marine growth.....The bottle is sparkling mint....
After several dives I recovered the three pictured bottles.... a Union Brewing Company Limited trade mark ( Sheaf of Wheat in circle) Nanaimo B.C. This Bottle Not For Sale....again full face embossed ....a Victoria Brewing Co Victoria B.C. on the reverse Not to be sold .....and the third bottle the Phoenix.....All are in as found condition......We found other bottles covered in marine growth from laying on the bottom above the silt....some with sea weed attached...some with barnacles....the buried bottles were mostly in very fine condition.
I know a long story.....[
] You had to be there.....Not that I didn't try to take you....[]Pictured are three British Columbia treasures for your pleasure.
