486 APPENDIX. 



ton are the red fir {ahies Douglasii) and yellow fir (ahies 

 grandis), which grow to be about three hundred feet high and 

 six or eight feet in diameter. They are used to a great extent 

 for industrial purposes, such as building houses and ships, 

 plankiiig streets in California, and furnishhig spars for shipping. 

 The vegetation of the Territory, and its indigenous quadrupeds 

 and birds, are the same as those of Oregon. The waters of 

 Washington abound in fish, and when the Pacific coast of this 

 continent shall have become densely populated, Puget Sound 

 will have great fisheries. Salmon, of which there are a dozen 

 species, are abundant in all the streams. Halibut abounds in 

 the Straits of Fuca. There are two species of fish called cod, 

 but they are not the true cod of the Atlantic, nor do they be- 

 long to the same genus, though they bear some resemblance to 

 it, and are valuable for food. Herrings and sardines enter 

 Puget Sound in great shoals. Sturgeon and smelt are also 

 abundant. About twenty miles off the mouth of the Straits 

 of Fuca there is a bank where cod and halibut might be 

 caught to advantage. The climate of Washington is too 

 moist to preserve fish by drying, so that they can only be 

 cured by means of salt. Clams abound in Paget Sound, 

 and oysters in Shoalwater Bay. — The chief natural curi- 

 osities of tlie Territory are its high snow peaks and ex- 

 tinct volcanoes, the sublim.e scenery on the Columbia River, 

 the falls of the river at the Dalles and the Cascades, and 

 the Grande Coulee, a deep chasm running across the large 

 bend of the river below the mouth of the Spokane, and 

 supposed by some persons to be the remains of an ancient bed. 

 — The main industry of Washington is, or until very lately 

 has been, the cutting and sawing of timber for exportation. 

 About twenty million feet, board measure, is exported annu- 

 ally. There are steam saw-mills at Teekalet and Seabeck on 

 the banks of Hood's canal, and at Port Madison, Port Lud- 

 low, Port Orchard, Seattle, and Miller's on Puget Sound, and 

 eleven water-mills on the banks of the sound. The Teekalet 

 mill can saw forty thousand feet in a day; and several of 



