Geological Papers. • 133 



direction and 80 miles in an east and west line. It is bounded on 

 the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuoa, on the east by Puget 

 Sound, on the south by Chehalis river and Gray's Harbor, and oa 

 the west by the Pacific Ocean. Port Townsend is at the northeast 

 corner and Cape Flattery at the northwest, and the snow-capped 

 Olympics occupy the central area. The region consists generally 

 of a benched area along the coast from which the foot-hills grad- 

 ually ascend toward Mount Olympus, 8150 feet in height, and the 

 watershed between the Strait of Fuca and the Pacific, a high ridge 

 which extends from the central mountain area to Cape Flattery. 

 It embraces the whole of Jefferson and Clallam and portions of 

 Mason and Chehalis counties. Port Townsend, Port Angeles, 

 Neah Bay, and Cape Flattery on the strait, and Quillayute (La 

 Push) and Gray's Harbor on the Pacific, are its most commonly 

 heard of places. 



HISTORY. 



The railroad activity in northwestern Washington has brought 

 before the public eye the Olympic peninsula with its giant timber 

 and fertile valleys and prairies. 



The region was first discovered by the Spaniards. In 1775 Bruno 

 Heceta, a Spanish captain, landed on the coast a little south of the 

 mouth of the Hoh river, planted the cross and took formal posses- 

 sion of the country for Spain. Then at the foot of the cross he 

 had thus set up he buried a bottle sealed with wax, in which was 

 written the record of his work and the statement that he took pos- 

 session of the land for the crown of Spain. While he was thus in 

 the official act of taking possession of the country, the Indians 

 visited his ship, the "Sonora," under the lee of Destruction island, 

 in charge of Heceta's companion, Bodega y Quadra. The Indians 

 came in their canoes, held up bits of copper and iron, and with 

 friendly signs sought to trade for more of the metals precious to 

 them. Believing that everything, was well, Quadra sent seven 

 men ashore to trade with the Indians for wood and water. No 

 sooner had they landed than 300 Indians rushed from ambush, 

 killed the sailors, and tore the boat to pieces for the metal fasten- 

 ings. Quadra was furious and wished to land thirty men to ob- 

 tain revenge, but Heceta overruled him and sailed away, naming 

 the island "Isla de Dolores," Isle of Sorrows. Later, in July, 1787, 

 Captain Barclay, an English explorer, had a similar encounter 

 with these same Indians, in which he lost six men. He named the 

 river of Hoh "Destruction river" as a result of this encounter, but 

 , late geographers have restored the Indian name "Hoh" to the 



