PUGET SOUND 



A few miles up the bay is Fort Townsend, 

 which makes a pretty pictm-e with the green 

 woods rising back of it and the calm water in 

 front. Across the mouth of the Sound lies the 

 long, narrow Whidbey Island, named by Van- 

 couver for one of his Ueutenants. It is about 

 thirty miles in length, and is remarkable in 

 this region of crowded forests and mountains 

 as being comparatively open and low. The 

 soil is good and easily worked, and a consid- 

 erable portion of the island has been under 

 cultivation for many years. Fertile fields, 

 open, parklike groves of oak, and thick masses 

 of evergreens succeed one another in charming 

 combinations to make this "the garden spot 

 of the Territory." 



Leaving Port Townsend for Seattle and 

 Tacoma, we enter the Sound and sail down 

 into the heart of the green, aspiring forests, 

 and find, look where we may, beauty ever 

 changing, in lavish profusion. Puget Sound, 

 "the Mediterranean of America" as it is some- 

 times called, is in many respects one of the 

 most remarkable bodies of water in the world. 

 Vancouver, who came here nearly a hundred 

 years ago and made a careful survey of it, 

 named the larger northern portion of it "Ad- 

 miralty Inlet" and one of the long, narrow 

 branches "Hood's Canal," applying the name 



221 



