FORESTRY. 539 
sand squares miles (exclusive of interior waters), three-fourths of which are timbered 
lands. The timber consists of fir, cedar, pine, spruce, hemlock, oak, maple, cotton- 
wood, ash, dogwood, alder, and some of the smaller varieties, such as vine maple, crab- 
apple, madrone, and wild cherry. The amount of fir exceeds all the other varieties 
combined, and the cedar stands second in quantity. As the fir exceeds all other 
varieties in quantity, so it does in quality and utility, being valuable for ship-build- 
ing, fencing, spars, and indeed almost every purpose for which wood is used. It is 
stronger than white oak. 
The size of the fir trees and the number growing upon given acres in good timber 
districts is almost incredible to residents upon the Atlantic slope of the continent. 
Trees often measure 320 feet in length, more than two-thirds of which are free from 
limbs. Fifty, sixty, and sometimes as high as eighty good timber trees grow upon an 
acre of ground; from sixty to one hundred and twenty thousand feet is the common 
yield. The loggers work no timber producing less than 30,000 feet per acre. Over 
hundreds and hundreds of square miles of area does this unequaled timber exist, 
astonishing for its size, perfection, and durability. In the immediate vicinity of the 
tide-waters of Puget Sound the timber suitable for milling purposes has been, in a 
measure, cut; sufficient, however, remains standing to give the forest the same dense 
appearance it exhibited in early days; but in the interior, only a few miles from tide- 
water, the primeval foresé still exists in all its grandeur. 
On the immediate coast of the Pacific Ocean the forest growth is composed princi- 
pally of hemlock and spruce. This prevails as far up the Strait of Fuca as Clallam 
Bay, where the fir begins to make its appearance and farther up takes precedence, 
spruce and hemlock being quite scarce except on some of the river-bottoms. 
The whole of the region between the Columbia River and the sound is covered with 
dense forest interspersed with prairies of considerable extent, and lakes. The forest 
comes directly upon the shores of the lakes and bounds the prairies with a full, dark 
wall of foliage. This is the general rule, but in some places the forest bordering the 
open spaces is composed of deciduous trees, such as alder, maple, ash, poplar, and 
crab-apple, with a dense thicket of salal (Gaultheria shallon,) salmon berry, bear berry, 
and other shrubbery. 
Through the region west of Hood’s Canal is the chain of mountains known as the 
Olympic Range, extending from Hood’s Canal to Elwha as snow-covered peaks, and 
from Elwha to Cape Flattery as mountain and hill of lesser altitude. The elevation 
of the mountains of the Olympic Range, as observed by the surveys of the American 
and English officers engaged in surveying the coast, shows that the three highest peaks 
lie south of the distance between Port Angeles and Crescent Bay on Fuca Strait, and 
measure respectively 6,545 feet, 6,275, and 6,012. The highest of these peaks is Mount 
Olympus. These heights were ascertained by triangulation. To the westward of 
these peaks the range gradually decreases, the highest peak south of Clallam Bay being 
4,000 feet, and at Cape Flattery 1,000. All these mountains up to the snow line are 
covered with a dense and almost impenetrable forest. Innumerable rivers and streams 
of various sizes flow from these mountains into the Strait of Fuca on the north, into 
the Chehalis River on the south, into Hood’s Canal on the east, and into the Pacific 
Ocean on the west, serving to drain a vast region of most excellent lands, particularly 
on the southern slope, where extensive prairies and a general rolling country easily 
cleared offer great inducements to emigrants in search of homes. 
The basin containing the waters of Puget Sound, which are now understood to mean 
all those waters included between Budd’s Inlet, the extreme southern portion, and 
Cape Flattery at the entrance to Fuca Strait, is bounded on the west by the region 
just described, and on the east by the Cascade Range of mountains, also covered to 
the limit of perpetual snow with the same magnificent forests, which are traversed by 
ten rivers which flow down from the Cascade Mountains and empty into the sound, 
furnishing ten alluvial valleys of agricultural land and supplying for logging pur- 
poses nearly a thousand miles of inland shore line. 
Of the rainfall of the region west of the Cascade Range I will quote from a paper 
on the meteorology of the region lying west of the Cascade Range of mountains, 
which I prepared for the Academy of Natural Sciences at Olympia, W. T., which was 
also read before that society on the 18th of March last, in which I show from my own 
personal observations as well as from the official records, which are shown in the re- 
port of the Smithsonian Institution on the annual precipitation of rain in the United 
States (No. 222 Contributions to Knowledge), that the rainfall varies considerably in 
different localities on Puget Sound. 
At Neeah Bay, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, the mean annual rainfall is 
123.35 inches, which is greater than that of any recorded place on the American con- 
tinent except Vera Cruz, in Mexico, where 183.20 inches are recorded as having fallen 
in 1830. As we come up the Strait we find the rainfall decreases thus: At Esquimault 
B. C., the mean annual precipitation is 65 inches; at Victoria, 60 inches; at Frazer 
River, 61 inches; at the American Camp on San Juan Island, 27.53; and at Port 
Townsend, 13 inches. The last is from the observations of the tidal observer at the 
