456 R. ARNOLD RECONNAISSANCE OF THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA 



Along the ocean front of the peninsula from cape Flattery south to 

 point Greenville the wave action is more intense and the resultant terrace 

 more pronounced. The terrace is nearly 2 miles wide in the region of the 

 Bodelteh islets, at the mouth of the Ozette river, its surface studded with 

 small islands and sharp rocks, the latter often exposed at low tide but 

 covered when the tide is in. It is this island and rock-studded terrace 

 which has been responsible for so many wrecks and which inspires the 

 navigator with such dread of the western coast of Washington. Islands 

 of all sizes and in all stages of development, from partially isolated 

 promontories (see plate 57, figure 1) to the typical rock-bound forms, 

 are found here. Destruction island is the largest of the true islands along- 

 western Washington. 



The shoreline conditions along the eastern end of the strait of Fuca 

 are decidedly unlike those of the portion of the coast just described. 

 From the vicinity of Freshwater bay eastward to Port Townsend the coast 

 consists of steep bluffs of more or less incoherent Pleistocene deposits 

 from which two prominent and interesting sand spits extend into the 

 strait. Both spits are long and narrow and bowed, although extending in 

 a general way parallel to that part of the coast on which they are de- 

 veloped. Both protect navigable bays on their inner sides. The spit at 

 New Dungeness is particularly notewortlry because of its form, the main 

 spit having a secondary one developed on its inner side (see figure 2). 

 These spits are due to the strong tidal currents which flow through the 

 adjoining strait, sometimes at the rate of 5 or 6 miles an hour. 



Owing to the heavy precipitation on the peninsula (Neah bay, in the 

 northwestern corner, having the maximum mean annual rainfall for the 

 United States), many rivers rise in the central portion of the Olympics 

 and descend through deep, precipitous canyons to the more nearly level 

 border lands, and thence out into Puget sound, Fuca strait, or the Pacific 

 ocean. These rivers are navigable only for canoes, and for these only in 

 the lower channels, but they offer an unlimited field for the development 

 of cheap power. 



Flowing northward to the strait are the Dungeness, Elwha, Lyre, East 

 and West Twin, Pysht, Clallam, Hoko, and Sekiu rivers, besides numer- 

 ous smaller rivers and creeks, while the western portion is drained by the 

 Ozette and Quillayute rivers and the latter's tributaries, the Dickey. 

 Soleduc, Bogachiel, and Calawa. Farther south, and also draining not 

 only the western but the southern flanks of the Olympics, are the Chah- 

 latt, Hoh, Queets, Eaft, and Quinaielt rivers. Three important inland 

 bodies of fresh water are found on the flanks of the range adjacent to the 



