262 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
be called the Mount Olympus range. This range is isolated, and forms the culminating ridge 
of the peninsula between Puget Sound and the sea. 
This peninsula is bounded on the west by the Pacific, on the north by Juan de Fuca 
strait, and on the east by the long and numerous branches of Admiralty inlet. On the south 
it is connected with the continent only by a narrow isthmus between the southern end of Puget 
Sound and Gray’s harbor or Shoalwater bay. The breadth of this isthmus is about thirty-five 
miles, while the whole peninsula has a circumference of nearly three hundred miles. 
If Puget Sound and the lagoons of the Columbia River delta were joined, the Mount Olympus 
peninsula would be a perfect island; perhaps this was once the case. 
MOUNT OLYMPUS, 47° 47’ NORTH LATITUDE, AND 123° 22’ WEST LONGITUDE. 
Mount Olympus is the most conspicuous point of the whole peninsula. It is a high peak of 
little more than 8,000 feet altitude, and is surrounded at its base by other lofty mountains. Its 
summit is covered with perpetual snow. 
The mountains around its base descend gradually to hills of a moderate height, and terminate 
on the coast of the Pacific in low cliffs, which fall perpendicularly on a sandy beach. Mount 
Olympus is an isolated and conspicuous peak, which can be seen from far out on the ocean, and 
must have been to navigators a prominent landmark, being the first point visible to their eyes 
on approaching land. 
The Spanish pilot, Juan Perez, was its first discoverer. He called it El Cero de la Santa 
Rosalia, (the Peak of Santa Rosalia.) It was afterwards called by the Spaniards La Sierra de 
Santa Rosalia, (the Santa Rosalia range.) This name was not, however, introduced in geog- 
raphy, because the Spaniards made nothing known about their early northwestern explorations. 
Captain Berkely, the discoverer, may also have seen this mountain, (1787,) but we are 
imperfectly acquainted with his discoveries, and know not what name he may have given to it. 
Captain Meares saw the mountain again on the 4th of July, 1788, and gave it the name 
Mount Olympus, or as he sometimes writes Olympius, and because he published and made 
known his discoveries and names, this name was adopted by Vancouver, (1192,) and still 
remains on our charts. | 
This mountain range has never been thoroughly explored. The altitude of Mount Olympus, 
8,138 feet, is that given by Wilkes in 1841. 
SHOALWATER BAY, 46° 18’ NORTH LATITUDE, AND 124° WEST LONGITUDE. 
From Cape Hancock, which is a precipitous headland forming the northern cape of the 
mouth of the Columbia, the coast becomes at once again low and sandy, and forms a long, 
broad, even beach, which runs for twenty miles directly north. This beach, called the Weather 
beach by the inhabitants of the Territory, is probably one of the most remarkable in the world. 
It is about one hundred yards wide at low water, perfectly even and hard, and the huge waves 
of the Pacific break upon it in parallel lines for many miles, presenting a sublime spectacle. 
The beach has a range of low, sandy, and wooded hills behind it, which, with the beach, form 
a long peninsula, separating the southern part of Shoalwater bay from the ocean. 
SHOALWATER BAY is a large basin of more than one hundred square miles in extent. 
The entrance to this basin is a little more than five miles wide between two low spits of land. 
Cape Shoalwater or Toke Point on the north and Leadbetter Point on the south. 
The entrance is filled with shoals and bars, like the bay itself. But two good channels, more 
