158 NARRATIVE OF 1853. 
steamers оп the Columbia at all seasons. The importance of a direct communication between 
so important a harbor as Shoalwater bay and the sound is obvious; and the connexion once 
established across the Coast range, would make the distance from the mouth of the Columbia 
forty-five miles by steamboat, and not over eighty by land, while it is at present sixty by 
steamboat, thirty by canoes up the Cowlitz, and fifty by land to Olympia. 
Previous to the arrival of Captain McClellan I had sent for gentlemen who had crossed the 
Sno-qual-moo and the Nachess Pass, men of intelligence and known reliability, and conferred 
with them carefully in regard to the character of the route, the probable depth of snow, and 
the habits of the Indians, as to crossing them in the winter; and learned that it was no uncom- 
mon thing for Indians on horseback to come from the Yakima country, through the Sno-qual- 
moo Pass, to the sound in the months of winter. I need not tell the reader the kind of popu- 
lation that is to be found in a distant Territory. "They have crossed the mountains, and made 
the long distance from the valley of the Mississippi to their homes on the Pacific; they have 
done so frequently, having to cut out roads as they went, and knowing little of the difficulties’ 
before them. They are therefore men of observation, of experience, of enterprise, and men 
who at home had, by industry and frugality, secured a competency and the respect of their 
neighbors; for it must be known that our emigrants travel in parties, and those go together 
who were acquaintances at home, because they mutually confide in each other. I was struck 
with the high qualities of the frontier people, and soon learned how to confide in them, and to 
gather information from them. 
Soon after Captain McClellan's arrival I directed him to go down the sound, make an 
examination of the several harbors which come into competition for the depot of a railroad, 
and to take up from the sound the line of railroad to the Sno-qual-moo Pass; and soon after- 
wards, with Mr. Gibbs, I went down the sound myself, in order to visit and take a census of 
the Indian tribes, learn something of the general character of the sound and its harbors, and 
to visit Vancouver's island and its principal port, Victoria. In the discharge of this duty, 
which was done on a little Newport sail-boat, called the Sarah Stone, I visited Steilacoom, 
Seattle, Skagit Head, Pennis cave, the mouth of the Skagit and the Samish rivers, Bellingham 
Bay, passed up the channel De Rosario and down the channel De Haro to Victoria, and on my 
return made Port Townsend and several other points on the western shore of the sound. We 
examined the coal mines back of Seattle and at Bellingham Bay, and saw a large body of Indians 
of nearly all the tribes. I became greatly impressed with the important advantage of Seattle, 
and also of the importance of the disputed islands. Port Townsend, as described by Vancouver, 
is also an admirable harbor. Much has been said by persons who never saw Puget Sound of 
its fogs, but the term fog is not in the mouth of any person who ever saw that sound. I have 
been on the waters of the sound many weeks, and that, too, in the depth of winter, in little 
vessels of from four to six tons, and we never found any difficulty in moving with safety. Ina 
geographical description which I shall give of this country, the harbors, resources, and 
geographical position of Puget Sound will be presented, as well as the character of the country 
generally, in connexion with that west of the Cascade mountains ; but I will observe that, in my 
subsequent labors as Indian superintendent, I visited every point on the Straits of Fuca down 
to Neeah bay, and to the ocean on the opposite side; have been down the Chehalis river, 
examined Shoalwater bay, crossed over the trail which was abandoned by Mr. Gibbs from the 
Willopah to the Cowlitz Landing; and my Indian agents һауе traversed the country much 
between the waters of the sound and the Pacific. The Indian Agent Simmons and Special 
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