lid barrier to the sea, without openings,
and we may well guess the joy of the old navigator on the discovery of
these waters after so long and barren a search to the southward.

His descriptions of the scenery--Mounts Baker, Rainier, St. Helen's,
etc.--were as enthusiastic as those of the most eager landscape lover of
the present day, when scenery is in fashion. He says in one place: "To
describe the beauties of this region will, on some future occasion, be a
very grateful task for the pen of a skillful panegyrist. The serenity
of the climate, the immeasurable pleasing landscapes, and the abundant
fertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only to be enriched
by the industry of man with villages, mansions, cottages, and other
buildings, to render it the most lovely country that can be imagined.
The labor of the inhabitants would be amply rewarded in the bounties
which nature seems ready to bestow on cultivation." "A picture so
pleasing could not fail to call to our remembrance certain delightful
and beloved situations in old England." So warm, indeed, were the
praises he sung that his statements were received in England with a
good deal of hesitation. But they were amply corroborated by Wilkes
and others who followed many years later. "Nothing," says Wilkes, "can
exceed the beauty of these waters and their safety. Not a shoal exists
in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound or Hood's
Canal, that can in any way interrupt their navigation by a 74-gun
ship. I venture nothing in saying there is no country in the world that
possesses waters like these." And again, quoting from the United States
Coast Survey, "For depth of water, boldness of approaches, freedom from
hidden dangers, and the immeasurable sea of gigantic timber coming down
to the very shores, these waters are unsurpassed, unapproachable."

The Sound region has a fine, fresh, clean climate, well washed both
winter and summer with copious rains and swept with winds and clouds
that come from the mountains and the sea. Every hidden nook in the
depths of the woods is searched and refreshed, leaving no stagnant air;
beaver meadows and lake basin and low and willowy bogs, all are kept
wholesome and sweet the year round. Cloud and sunshine alternate in
bracing, cheering succession, and health and abundance follow the
storms. The outer sea margin is sublimely dashed and drenched with ocean
brine, the spicy scud sweeping at times far inland o