3o8 IP s t e I s i a 



occupied this valley possessed a remarkable 

 vigor. It then gathered the waters now filling 

 several streams; the imperial Fraser of British 

 Columbia, the Nooksachk, the Skagit, the Sky- 

 komish, the White and a score of others were 

 confluent at places now in the bed of Puget 

 Sound and formed the great river which flowed 

 through the strait when its channel was a thou- 

 sand feet higher than today and the Pacific 

 coast line many miles west of its present position. 

 At that time Port Renfrew bay was a narrow 

 river carrying a tumultous torrent, the confluent 

 waters of the San Juan and Gordon rivers, then 

 high mountain streams, into the River Fuca 

 many miles above its mouth. The beautiful 

 delta at the head of the bay could not then have 

 existed; the projecting rocks on which the dock 

 is now built formed a bold and sightly cliff 

 hundreds of feet above the water. The eagle 

 looked from his aerie down a narrow channel, 

 like that of the Gordon now, across the waters 

 of one of the largest rivers of the continent. 

 The site of the Minnesota Seaside Station was 

 then a lofty hillside, a rocky situation many 



