INTRODUCTION.

Before the Massachusetts Club of Boston, in the year 1889, the distinguished senator from that state, Hon. George Frisbie Hoar, speaking of the Puget Sound country, said, among other things: "It is difficult to imagine what must be the destiny of that wonderful region, unsurpassed on this earth for the fertility of its soil, and with a climate where it seems impossible that human life should come to an end, if the ordinary laws of health should be observed, with a stimulating atmosphere where brain and body are at their best. There our children, our brethren and our kinsmen have carried the principles of New England; there on the shores of that Pacific sea, they are to repeat on a larger scale, with grander results, this wonderful drama which we and our fathers have enacted here. There are to be the streets of a wealthier New York, the homes of a more cultured Boston, the halls of a more learned Harvard, and the workshops of a busier Worcester." This language doubtless seems extravagant to the reader who has never visited this region or made himself familiar with its magnificent conditions or with its grand possibilities in the future, but to the tourist and much more so to the actual settler it is recognized as only a simple statement of facts with reference to this part of our country. From the time when, in 1792, Vancouver first explored the waters of Puget Sound and wrote of them, with much more to the same effect, "Nothing can exceed the beauty and safety of these waters," down to our own day, when General W. T. Sherman said, "God has done more for Puget Sound than any other place in the world," the invariable testimony of visitors and permanent inhabitants has been to the same effect. What is now known as the "Puget Sound country" occupies the extreme northwestern corner of the United States, Alaska excepted. The name of Puget Sound was originally applied to that part of these waters which lies south of Admiralty Inlet and Whidby Island, but in recent years it is applied to all the inland waters entered by the Straits of Juan de Fuca, south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, or the boundary line which separates the United States from British Columbia. For the purposes of this history the Puget Sound Country will be taken to include all that part of western Washington which is topographically, geographically and commercially tributary to Puget Sound, having its outlet either by the Straits of Juan de Fuca, through Gray's Harbor or

Willapa Bay, to the Pacific Ocean. This area includes the counties of Lewis, Thurston, Pierce, King, Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, San Juan, Island, Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, Mason, Chehalis and Pacific. This district is about two hundred miles in length from north to south, and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles in width from east to west. The summit of the Cascade Mountains forms its eastern, and the Pacific Ocean its western boundary. The Cascade range through the states of Oregon and Washington is a continuation of the Sierra Nevada range of California. This range is a wild, rugged and massive chain of mountains, having an average height of about five thousand feet, whose higher peaks are far above the line of perpetual snow. Its western slopes are steep, often precipitous, with with numerous bold and dashing steams of water that hasten from the icy caves and gorges of these mountains to the sea. Some of the highest peaks in the United States are found within the limits of this chain of mountains. Mt. Baker near the northern boundary of the state, 10,500 feet in height, presents a beautiful spectacle from the lower part of the Sound. About two hundred miles south, Mt. Rainier, 14,520 feet, one of the highest in the United States, is one of the grandest mountains of the globe, and is visible from Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia, at the head of Puget Sound, and, indeed, for a hundred miles in every direction, but the view of this mountain from the center of the Sound country is particularly fine, because of its symmetry of outline, and the impression it gives of solidity and majesty, as it is seen rising from the level of the sea to its glittering summit in the clouds. Still farther to the south, and nearer the Columbia river, are Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens, which are 13,300 and 9,750 respectively. About one hundred miles west of and parallel with the Cascade Mountains is the Olympic range, which extends from the Straits of Fuca south to the vicinity of Gray's Harbor. This range, though not so high, is yet a bold and rugged one, having as its highest peaks Mt. Olympus, 8,500 feet in height, and Mt. Constance, 6,500 feet. The outline of its rocky pinnacles, as they mount upward to the region of perpetual snow, presents a spectacle of grandeur and magnificence, not only to all parts of the Sound Country, but to the mariner far out at sea on his way to the Orient or up and down the coast. Between these mountain ranges Puget Sound is located, a marvelous arm of the sea, extending south from its junction with the Straits of Juan de Fuca one hundred and twenty miles to Olympia, the capital of the state of Washington, and north, including Bellingham Bay, to the boundary line separating Washington from British Columbia. Its outlet into the Pacific Ocean is by the Straits of Juan de Fuca, a magnificent channel from twenty to forty miles in width, of unknown depth, and leading in a

westerly and almost direct line to the Pacific Ocean, a distance of one hundred and ten miles. This strait forms an entrance of unrivaled beauty and safety to the many harbors of Puget Sound, and ships of all kinds very often sail into port without the aid of tugs or pilots. The commerce of the world could be accommodated in these waters, such is their extent and convenience of access. Puget Sound itself is a vast body of water, or arm of the sea, about two hundred miles in length from north to south, and from ten to twenty miles in width, with numerous smaller arms, coves, bays, inlets, ports and harbors sheltered by the mountains already mentioned, with their spurs, hills and highlands, where a shelving and sandy beach almost everywhere permits vessels of all sizes, from a canoe to a first class battleship, to make a landing without danger, and without wharves, docks or other facilities usually required for such purposes. The greater part of the land surface of the territory above referred to as the Puget Sound Country, estimated at about four-fifths, is covered with a vast forest composed of the most valuable as well as beautiful trees in the world, growing from two hundred to three hundred feet in height, and from five to thirty feet in diameter. These trees are chiefly fir, of several varieties, cedar, spruce, hemlock, larch and other varieties of evergreen, with many deciduous trees of lesser growth, yet useful for a great variety of purposes. The vegetation throughout this entire region is almost tropical in its luxuriance, and these forests are of incalculable value, furnishing, as they do, an apparently inexhaustible supply of the finest lumber in the world for ship and railroad building, and for all domestic purposes. No lumberman from the states east of the Rocky Mountains, or elsewhere, for that matter, ever visited these shores and looked upon these primeval forests without becoming enthusiastic in his admiration for their beauty and extent, or who did not wish to acquire some interests in their manufacture into lumber. The land surface not covered with timber is made. up of small prairies, lowlands, of inexhaustible fertility when reclaimed, in river valleys and elsewhere overflowed by the high tides of the Sound, which rise from twelve to twenty feet at the varying seasons of the year. The surface of Puget Sound is dotted with innumerable islands, large and small, from a mere speck upon the water, or an acre of ground, to the largest, Whidby, which is one hundred and fifty square miles in extent. It is sometimes called the "Mediterranean of the Pacific," because of the beauty, variety and productiveness of these islands. They are not only an important feature of the landscape, but rich in timber, soil, mineral wealth and other resources, and are well supplied with coves, inlets, harbors and other conveniences for safe navigation. The waters of Puget Sound are singularly clear and transparent, reflecting from their blue depths by day

the forest trees that nearly everywhere line their shores, and the stars by night, and these waters abound in fish of a hundred different varieties.

A sail amongst these islands or through some of the many channels of Puget Sound, large or small, especially in the summer season, is a perpetual delight, and the scenery, changing almost every moment, a perfect panorama of beauty. To the weary, dusty and footsore immigrants who had crossed the plains there was something particularly grateful and refreshing in the cool shade of the vast and towering forests of this region, which sheltered game in great variety and of almost every description. After a journey of six months or more over thousands of miles of prairie, plain and desert, where a tree was a rarity and shade of any kind was an unusual luxury, the change to an abundance of clear and sparkling water and to the deep shade of these forests, where the sun could scarcely penetrate, was delightful beyond expression. These streams, flowing in perennial fullness from mountain recesses and icy glaciers, were in striking contrast with the wide territory over which they had just passed, where streams of any kind were few and far between and where thirst was often endured, and at times it became a terror. Many of these immigrants had never seen a mountain until they started on this long and painful trip, and here they had before their eyes towering peaks mantled with perpetual snow, whose terraced sides and slopes were covered with timber, which was not only a source of admiration and delight but gave promise of riches beyond the "dreams of avarice." On their western border was the shore of the Pacific Ocean, whose restless waves, seething and dashing surf and ceaseless motion were an embiem of "man's perpetual toil and endeavor," whilst on another border to the eastward, stretching north and south, their white summits pointing to the skies, were the rock-ribbed and sun-kissed mountains, grand in their outlines and immovable in their foundations, the emblems of eternal rest and peace. Between these lay a land of infinite resources, rich in timber, coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, marble, and almost every variety of mineral and agricultural wealth which the heart of man could desire or his hands make use of, for comfort or happiness. This region enjoyed also a climate genial and salubrious, singularly free from any extremes of heat or cold, tempered alike in winter and summer with soft "Chinook" breezes from southern seas, or winds from the west, which were not only mild and temperate but were at times balmy and delightful beyond description. To these attractions were added an inland sea, whose arms, bays, coves and harbors, with two thousand miles of shore line, were amply protected from winds, storms, tornadoes and cyclones, by mountain ranges, whose spurs, headlands, and islands sheltered its every part and made it the delight of every mariner who ever entered its waters. This