286 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
chart. Its Indian name was probably introduced by the Hudson Bay Company. East of this 
head Possession sound branches out, which we will describe hereafter. Point Edmund is 
a low and broad point, somewhat projecting from the eastern shore, south of the entrance of 
Possession sound. This point was not named either by Vancouver or by Wilkes. The present 
name appears to be of modern origin. 
Dwamish Bay.—From Point Edmund the eastern shore runs nine miles south, then forms a 
very pointed headland called West Point, from which it turns abruptly to the southeast, and 
forms Dwamish bay, one of the principal and most useful harbors of the whole inlet. The 
bay is six nautical miles long, in a southeastern direction, and about two and a half miles 
broad. It branches off from Admiralty Inlet between West Point on the north and Point 
Roberts on the south. The greater part of it is very deep—80 to 30 fathoms— but the south- 
eastern extremity of it is filled with broad sand-banks, probably carried into it by the Samma- 
mish river, which empties into the back part of the bay through several arms. 
The bay is slightly indicated on Vancouver's charts. He gave it very little attention, and 
did not name it. 
Wilkes surveyed it for the first time, and named it Elliott’s bay, after one of his officers. 
It was again surveyed by the officers of the English admiralty, and the admiralty charts have 
for it the Indian name, Sammamish river. This name is, on the United States Coast Survey 
charts, only given to the river. The bay was again surveyed by Lieutenant James Alden, of 
the Coast Survey. Не calls it Dwamish bay, which name bas, however, long been in use on 
the spot itself. On the northwestern shore of the bay a little town or settlement has sprung 
up called Seattle, and a little anchorage near it is named from it Seattle harbor. 
Commencement Bay.—The coast from Point Roberts runs for about fifteen nautical miles 
nearly directly to the south without making any well-marked bay; then it turns to the south- 
west, and forms at last in 47° 17’ a deep and spacious inlet, called Commencement bay. This 
bay has more or less a square form. | 
With a southwestern and southeastern angle, it spreads out into a valley which seems to 
come down and to open here from the Cascade mountain range, where a corresponding opening 
or indentation south of Mount Rainier is observed. 
Vancouver, who entered this bay on the 26th of May, 1792, observed from afar that opening 
in the eastern range corresponding to the bay, and he therefore believed there might be a 
channel cutting through the mountain and having eastern communication. He was, however, 
soon undeceived in this, and reached the end of the bay, of which he gives a handsome view 
in his work.* He gave no other name to it than the south part of Admiralty Inlet. 
Lieutenant Ringgold, sent out by Commander Wilkes in the ship Porpoise on a surveying 
expedition from Nisqually to the north, commenced his survey in this bay on the 15th of May, 
1841, and he therefore called it Commencement bay. The little river emptying into the 
eastern corner of the bay is called Puyallup river, which is about sixty nautical miles long, 
and comes in a northwest direction from the Cascade mountains, where it rises on the western 
slope of Mount Rainier. The western shore of Admiralty Inlet is throughout formed by the 
eastern coast of what is here called the Great Peninsula. This isa large tract of country 
between Hood's Canal and Admiralty Inlet. It has, upon the whole, the configuration of & 
triangle, or a leaf attached to the continent without a stem. 
8 See Vancouver, yol. 1, р. 268. 
