he Siwash recounted his legend without the palisades of Fort
Nisqually, and motioning, in expressive pantomime, at the close, that he
was dry with big talk and would gladly "wet his whistle."

The town of Tacoma contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and is in a highly
prosperous condition. From here one may start on the grand Alaskan tour,
winding up through all the wonders of sound and strait, bay and ocean, to
the far North summerland--a trip of most entrancing interest. The return
from Tacoma to Portland may be made by either rail or boat.

So much has already been said in preceding pages about Puget Sound that
it would seem the subject might be somewhat overdone. But it still
remains to be said that justice can never be done to the scenic glories
of this beautiful inland sea. The views from different points, and from
almost every point on the Sound, are of sublime grandeur. On the east are
the Cascade Mountains, ranging from 5,000 to 14,444 feet in height, Mount
Rainier for Tacoma, (as it is also called) being of the latter altitude,
and only third in height of the mountains of the United States. On the
west are the Olympic Mountains, the highest peaks of which reach up to
8,000 feet. Both ranges, brilliantly snow-crowned, are within view at the
same time from various points, and the scenery in its entirety, with its
continual changefulness and features of sublimity, can not be excelled.
Strangers and travelers who have visited every part of the world never
leave the deck of the steamers while going through the waters of the
Sound country. In noting a single feature, Mount Rainier, Senator George
F. Edmunds wrote as follows: "I have been through the Swiss mountains,
and am compelled to own that there is no comparison between the finest
effects exhibited there and what is seen in approaching this grand and
isolated mountain. I would be willing to go 500 miles again to see that
scene. The Continent is yet in ignorance of what will be one of the
grandest show places, as well as sanitariums. If Switzerland is rightly
called the play-ground of Europe, I am satisfied that around the base of
Mt. Rainier will become a prominent place of resort, not for America
only, but for the world besides, with thousands of sites for building
purposes that are nowhere excelled for the grandeur of the view that can
be obtained from them, with topographical features that would make the
most perfect system of drainage both possible and easy, an