d with a most
agreeable and health-giving climate."

A more enthusiastic writer says: "Puget Sound scenery is the grandest
scenery in the world. One has here in combination the sublimity of
Switzerland, the picturesqueness of the Rhine, the rugged beauty of
Norway, the breezy variety of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence,
or the Hebrides of the North Sea, the soft, rich-toned skies of Italy,
the pastoral landscape of England, with velvet meadows and magnificent
groves, massed with floral bloom, and the blending tints and bold color
of the New England Indian summer. Features with which nothing within the
vision of another city can be placed in comparison are the Olympic range
of mountains in front of Seattle, and the sublime snow peaks of the
Rainier, Baker, Adams, and St. Helens, with their glaciers and robes of
eternal white, and the great falls of the Snoqualmie, 280 feet high, near
by."

[Illustration: MOUNT ST. HELENS, WASHINGTON, FROM NEAR MOUTH OF THE
WILLAMETTE RIVER. Reached via the Union Pacific Ry.]

The geography and topography of this sheet are alone a wonder and a
study. Glance upon the map. The elements of earth and water seem to
have struggled for dominion one over the other. The Strait of Juan de
Fuca and the Gulf of Georgia to the south narrow into Admiralty Inlet;
the inlet penetrates the very heart of the Territory, cutting the land
into most grotesque shapes, circling and twisting into a hundred minor
inlets, into which flow a hundred rivers, fed in their turn by myriads
of smaller creeks and bayous--a veritable network of lakes, streams,
peninsulas, and islands which, with the mountain ranges backing the
landscapes on either hand, can not fail to be picturesque in the
extreme. Here on the placid bosom of this inland sea, the pleasure
seeker can enjoy all the delights and exhilarating influences of ocean
travel without its inconveniences. No sea sickness, no proneness to
reflect on "to be or not to be," but, amid the bracing breezes, the
steady, easy glide of the commodious steamer over pleasant waters,
takes him through scenes as fair as the poet's brightest dreams. This
"Mediterranean of the Pacific" throughout its length and breadth is
adorned with heavily-wooded and fantastically-formed islands. The giant
firs are the tallest and straightest in the world. Here the "Great
Eastern" came for her masts, and here thousands of ships obtain their
spars yearly.

To repeat, the scenery is indee