PUGET SOUND 



Baker, Rainier, St. Helen's, etc. — were as 

 enthusiastic as those of the most eager land- 

 scape-lover of the present day, when scenery- 

 is in fashion. He says in one place: "To de- 

 scribe the beauties of this region will, on some 

 future occasion, be a very grateful task for the 

 pen of a skillful panegyrist. The serenity of 

 the climate, the immeasurable pleasing land- 

 scapes, and the abundant fertility that im- 

 assisted nature puts forth, require only to be 

 enriched by the industry of man with villages, 

 mansions, cottages, and other buildings, to 

 render it the most lovely country that can be 

 imagined. The labor of the inhabitants would 

 be amply rewarded in the boimties which na- 

 ture seems ready to bestow on cultivation." 

 "A pictiire so pleasing could not fail to call 

 to our remembrance certain delightful and 

 beloved situations in old England." So warm, 

 indeed, were the praises he sung that his state- 

 ments were received in England with a good 

 deal of hesitation. But they were amply cor- 

 roborated by Wilkes a,nd others who followed 

 many years later. "Nothing," says Wilkes, 

 "can exceed the beauty of these waters and 

 their safety. Not a shoal exists in the Straits 

 of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, Puget 

 Sound or Hood's Canal, that can in any way 

 interrupt their navigation by a 74-g«n ship. 



223 



