154 Kansas Academy of Science. 



on its inner side. The spits are due to the strong tidal currents 

 which flow through the adjoining straits at the rate of about five or 

 six miles per hour, as is also the spit at Port Angeles, which will 

 be mentioned later. The city they protect will grow as the country 

 develops. 



Port Angeles was discovered by the Spanish Captain Don Fran- 

 cisco Elisa. He had been tossed about for many weary days by 

 storms and furious waves when suddenly he came upon a long, 

 snake-like spit extending far out into the strait, curving so as to 

 protect a large bay on its eastern side. In this bay Elisa took 

 refuge; and in consequence of the safe and perfect harbor thus 

 formed, he named it Port Angeles — "The Port of the Angels." 



The narrow spit of land which encloses the bay-like harbor ex- 

 tends from the mainland shore north into the strait a distance of 

 two miles. Then it gently curves to the east for nearly four miles, 

 enclosing the large bay and leaving a broad, deep, wide, open road- 

 way for the entering and going out of ships. And to make the 

 harbor more perfect, it has a tenacious clay bottom, with no 

 treacherous rocks to threaten the mariner seeking shelter within it. 



In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln reserved a strip of land one 

 mile deep and five miles long fionting this bay for a town site, 

 amounting to 3520 acres. And the next year a small part of this 

 reserve was sold in lots by the government at public auction. 

 Then a short time afterward it became the seat of the United 

 States customs office of the Puget Sound and straits country, but 

 held it only a few years, when it was removed to Port Townsend. 

 Then until 1890 the town was in a dormant state. But that year 

 a boom came and the people made squatter town-site settlements 

 all over the entire tract reserved by President Lincoln. Then they 

 petitioned the government to throw the entire reserved town site 

 open for settlement, which was done in 1891, Congress having ap- 

 propriated $5000 to survey and appraise the land. 



Now around the shores of this harbor is to be found the thriving 

 city of Port Angeles. The site is unexcelled. Beginning with the 

 bluffs overlooking the baj' there is a gentle and continuous rise to 

 the foot-hills, twelve miles away to the southward, above which 

 tower the white-robed Olympics. Almost without exception every 

 lot within the city limits commands a view of both the water and 

 the mountains. vSince 1890 it has been the county-seat of Clallam 

 county. 



