4 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Se«. 



with Lake Crescent. The second road extends from East 

 Clallam, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, west to LaPush, on 

 the Pacific front, a distance of about 50 miles. The third road 

 connects the above roads along the line of the Soleduck River. 



Trails also extend from West Clallam to Ozette Lake 

 and the Dicky Lake country, and from the latter to Quil- 

 layute Prairie. Another trail connects Forks with the Hoh 

 country. A few short trails also branch off of the main trails 

 here and there. These afford all the means of gaining access 

 to the interior, except by canoe on the various streams. 



This peninsula covers an area of about 8000 square miles, 

 or an area about the size of Connecticut, Rhode Island and 

 Delaware combined. It extends approximately 100 miles in 

 a north and south direction and 80 miles in an east and west 

 line. It is triangular in shape with its hypotenuse side facing 

 the Pacific. It is bounded on the north by the Strait of Juan 

 de Fuca, on the east by Puget Sound, on the south by Che- 

 halis River and Gray's Harbor, and on the west by the 

 Pacific Ocean. Cape Flattery is at the northwest corner and 

 Port Townsend at the northeast, and the snow-capped Olym- 

 pics occupy the central area. The region consists generally 

 of a benched area along the coast from which the foothills 

 gradually ascend toward Mount Olympus. 8150 feet in height, 

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

 high ridge which extends from the central mountain area to 

 Cape Flattery. Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Neah Bay, 

 and Cape Flattery on the strait, and Quillayute (LaPush) 

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

 heard of places. 



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 possession 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 the written record of his work 

 and the statement that he took possession of the land for 

 Spain. While he was thus in the official act of taking pos- 

 session 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 



