THE OLYMPIC COUNTRY 
l.'U 
As the northern, eastern, and southern sides of the peninsula, 
bordering on Fuca straits, Puget sound, and the Chehalis river 
and Gray’s harbor, are j)artially settled and comparatively well 
known for six to ten miles back from those waters, this article 
will have reference almost exclusively to the interior and western 
portions of the peninsula. The whole peninsula contains an area 
of about 5,700 square miles, of which protiably 3,000 square miles 
arc occupied by the Olympic mountains, from which the j^enin- 
sula takes its name. 
The main watershed of these mountains begins at cape Flat- 
tery and extends southeasterly almost parallel with the straits 
and about 12 miles therefrom until nearly south of Port Angeles, 
where an abrupt turn to the south is made for about 6 miles, 
})assing by the east end of mount 0 l 3 uupus; thence southeast 20 
miles to Pj’ramid peak; thence southwest and gradually swing- 
ing to the west for 30 miles to mount Frances at the head of 
Quinault lake; thence southwest for about 18 miles, rapidly de- 
creasing in height until it reaches its termination. Such is the 
general course of the divide between the waters flowing west- 
ward to the Pacific ocean and those flowing to the north, east, and 
south into Fuca straits, Puget sound, and Gray’s harbor. From 
the main divide, and in many places exceeding it in height, 
branch out in all directions spurs and ranges, they in their turn 
rel)ranching and branching again, until the complicated rami- 
fications of mountain ridge and ])eak so completely cover the 
countiy with their rugged heights that there is hardly room for 
the gorges and can}mns and ravines that lie between, and none 
at all for valley or plain. These mountains are a com]>aratively 
recent upheaval, and nature has not yet had time to round off 
their slopes or dull the jagged sharpness of their summits. She 
has, however, through the agency of an enormous rainfall, cut 
various gigantic sluices in the rocky face of the mountains, and 
through these a large amount of detritus is brought down. 
Mount Ol^unpus, the name peak, 8,150 feet high, is the highest 
and most conspicuous mountain in the range. It was first named 
La Sierra Santa Rosalia, by Perez, in 1774, but in 1788 Captain 
John Hears saw and described it under the name of mount 
Olynqms. It is about twenty miles south of Freshwater bay on 
the straits of Fuca, and is southwest of the main divide, with 
which it connects by a short, sharp, high ridge. It is a cluster 
of sharp, jagged rock peaks projecting upward through an accu- 
mulation of ice which forms a cap two miles wide and four miles- 
