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The country Included in tliis basin though considerably broken preserves 

 near the water a very general level of about two hundred feet, rising higher 

 and generally in tables toward the Cascade Mountains. Its eastern side is 

 intersected by numerous rivers which have their origin in that range, inter- 

 locking with others emptying into the Columbia, and running in an oblique 

 course toward the sound. The principal of these, commencing at the north, 

 are the Nuksahk, which at the mouth takes the name of Lummi; heading 

 in Mt. Baker, Avhich it partially encircles, and emptying by two mouths into 

 Bellingham Bay and the Gulf of Georgia ; the Skagit and Stoluch-whamish, 

 emptying into the shallow bays lying between Whidbey Island and the 

 main ; the Snohomish, of which the Snokwalmu is the principal branch, 

 emptying into Port Gardner ; the Dwamish, the upper part of which is 

 known generally as White River, heading in Mt. Rainier and falling into 

 Elliott Bay ; the Puyallup, heading in the foot-hills of that mountain and 

 emptying at Commencement Bay; and the Niskwalli, rising on its south side 

 and discharging into Puget Sound. All these streams have low deltas of 

 greater or less extent at their mouths, as well as alluvial bottoms, the more 

 northern ones the most extensive. Farther up they run through narrow, 

 timbered bottoms, bordered by high bluffs, the escarpments of the table- 

 land, until at the foot of the mountains they are cauoned. It is by these 

 streams, and the depr.essions or passes occurring at their sources, that the 

 Indians of the interior obtain access to the sound for the purposes of trade. 

 They are none of them navigable except by canoes, nor even in that way 

 for gi-eat distances. Their course is rapid, and they are subject to frequent 

 overflow, being alike affected by the heavy rains and by the rapid melting 

 of the snow on the mountains. The principal freshets arise from the former 

 cause, and occur in winter. The greater part of the country is timbered, 

 but there are open prairies on Whidbey Island, and from the Puyallup 

 around the head of the sound. These last are of gravelly soil, and extend, 

 with intermediate belts of timl)er, to those on the upper waters of the Tsi- 

 halis and the Kowlitz. A distinguishing feature in this district is the number 

 of lakes, some of considerable size, which are scattered through it. The 

 largest of these are those near Bellingham Bay and that emptying Into the 

 Dwamish. The western side of Hood Canal, like the Straits of Fuca, is 



