GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 281 
bold shores, and are throughout very deep and abrupt, so much so that in many places a ship’s 
side wil strike the shore before the keel will touch the ground.* Куеп in the interior and 
most hidden parts depths of 50 and 100 fathoms occur, as broad as De Fuca strait itself. 
Vancouver found 60 fathoms near the Vashon island within a cable length of the shore, and in 
Possession sound he found no soundings with a line of 110 fathoms. Our modern more extensive 
soundings prove that this depth diminishes towards the extremities of the inlets and basins, 
and we will speak of it more at the particular descriptions of each part. A high tide goes up 
from De Fuca strait into all these sounds. Even at Nisqually, the most southern part of 
Admiralty Inlet, the spring tides are 18 feet high and the neaps 12.1 
Nothing can exceed the beauty and safety of these waters for navigation. Not a shoal exists 
within them; not a hidden rock; no sudden overfalls of the water or the air; no such strong 
flaws of the wind as in other narrow waters; for instance, as in those of Magellan's strait. 
And there are in this region so many excellent and most secure ports that the commercial 
marine of the Pacific ocean may be here easily accommodated. 
The country into which these waters enter, and of which they fill the lowest and central 
parts, may be said to be a broad valley between the Mount Olympus range to the west and 
the Cascade range to the east; the high snow-covered peaks of both ranges may be seen from , 
the waters everywhere. They stand at a distance of about 100 nautical miles from each other. 
The broad valley between them is, upon the whole, of a moderate elevation, and presents a 
pretty level depression. The higher spurs of the two mountain ranges do not come down to 
the water’s edge. The shore lands in the immediate neighborhood of the channels may 
therefore be called only hills. They are partly handsomely wooded, partly covered with 
luxuriant grass. In this respect Admiralty Inlet differs from other similar sounds of the a 
coast to the north, where these sounds sometimes cut right into the heart of the high 
mountains, and offer some of the boldest, wildest, and most picturesque coast scenery to be 
seen in the world. 
The Admiralty Inlet valley or depressi 
southwest, towards the Columbia river. 
venes, because the Mount Olympus range is a perfectly isolated s ; 
have already observed above, very possible that the northern waters once м жәе through, 
were connected with the Columbia river, and made of Mount Olympus ролик ап init 
All the waters comprised under the general name Admiralty Inlet may be said to consist of 
the following five divisions: 
1st. The entrance as high up as Suquamis 
9d. Hood's Canal, or the great western branch. l 
3d. The principal body of Admiralty Inlet proper, from Suquamish head as far south as to 
the narrows near Point Defiance, where the great body of the water ends. 
4th. That southern cluster of sounds and inlets which is connected with Admiralty Inlet only 
by a very narrow channel, and which is called Puget Sound. 
5th. Possession sound, the great northeastern branch of Admiralty 
on goes still on to the south, with a gentle bend to the 
Between both waters no high mountain range inter- 
ystem. Itis from this, as I 
h head, where the principal separation begins. 
Inlet, which conducts 
into Rosario strait. 
5 Wilkes, vol. 4, page 304. 
1 Wilkes, vol. 4, page 305. 
