APPENDIX. 489 
ton are the red fir (abies Douglasii) and yellow fir (abies 
grandis), which grow to be about three hundred feet high and 
six or eight feet in diameter. They are used to a great extent 
for industrial purposes, such as building houses and ships, 
planking streets in California, and furnishing spars for shipping. 
The vegetation of the Territory, and its indigenous quadrupeds 
and birds, are the same as those of Oregon. The waters of 
Washington abound in fish, and when the Pacific coast of this 
continent shall have become densely populated, Puget Sound 
will have great fisheries. Salmon, of which there are a dozen 
species, are abundant in all the streams. Halibut abounds in 
the Straits of Fuca. There are two species of fish called cod, 
but they are not the true cod of the Atlantic, nor do they be- 
long to the same genus, though they bear some resemblance to 
it, and are valuable for food. Herrings and sardihes enter 
Puget Sound in great shoals. Sturgeon and smelt are also 
abundant. About twenty miles off the mouth of the Straits 
of Fuca there is a bank where cod and halibut might be 
caught to advantage. The climate of Washington is too 
moist to preserve fish by drying, so that they can only be 
cured by means of salt. Clams abound in Puget Sound, 
and oysters in Shoalwater Bay.—The chief natural curi- 
osities of the Territory are its high snow peaks and ex- 
tinct volcanoes, the sublime scenery on the Columbia River, 
the falls of the river at the Dalles and the Cascades, and 
the Grande Coulée, a deep chasm running across the large 
bend of the river below the mouth of the Spokane, and 
supposed by some persons to be the remains of an ancient bed. 
—The main industry of Washington is, or until very lately 
has been, the cutting and sawing of timber for exportation. 
About twenty million feet, board measure, is exported annu- 
ally. There are steam saw-mills at Teekalet and Seabeck on 
the banks of Hood’s canal, and at Port Madison, Port Lud- 
low, Port Orchard, Seattle, and Miller’s on Puget Sound, and 
eleven water-mills on the banks of the sound. The Teekalet 
mill can saw forty thousand feet in a day; and several of 
