54 
THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
been selected, carefully surveyed, and experienced pilots conduct the vessels to 
and from Alaska on its waters. The whole length of the passage is heavily 
timbered with various kinds of pine, fir, hemlock, cedar and spruce. Here and 
there avalanches from the mountain tops have swept through the dense timber, 
like a sickle through so much grain; and, although in a few years the growth is 
restored, yet the varying shades of green in the old and new growth of trees, 
running in perpendicular stripes up the steep hillsides, plainly show the ancient 
and recent devastations. Prettily situated Indian villages dot the narrow, 
shelving shores at rare intervals along the passage ; and, when these nomads of 
the Northwest are seen, which is not infrequent, the chances are more than 
likely that it will be in a canoe, where they spend two-thirds of their out-of- 
door life. 
Says the “American Cyclopaedia,” .speaking of this interesting part of Wash¬ 
ington Territory, the southern part of the inland passage: “Washington 
Territory possesses a great multitude of harbors, perhaps more than any other 
country of equal extent on the globe. Puget Sound, which has an average 
width of two miles, never less than one nor more than four, and a depth never 
less than eight fathoms, runs ioo miles inland in a southward direction from 
the Straits of Fuca ; and Hood’s Canal, twelve miles further west, with half 
the width, runs in the same general direction about 60 miles. These two 
great estuaries, or arms of. tidewater, have depth sufficient for the largest 
vessels, and numerous bends and corners where the most perfect protection 
may be found against the winds.” Captain Wilkes, in the report of his famous 
exploring expedition, writes of Puget Sound : “ I venture nothing in saying 
there is no country in the world that possesses waters equal to these.” The 
Coast Range and Cascade Range of mountains are plainly visible from the 
sound. Near the Columbia river the Coast Range is not very high ; but west of 
Hood’s Canal it rises, in abrupt, beetling ridges, 7,000 to 9,000 feet high, called 
the Olympian Mountains, many of the peaks being snow-crowned throughout 
the year. The Cascade Range fairly bristles with snow-clad peaks from 8,000 
to over 14,000 feet in height, and in every direction, almost, may be seen the 
grandest Alpine scenery in the distance. 
Steaming northward through Puget Sound from Tacoma, with Seattle 
and other towns upon our right, and Port Townsend, the port of entry to 
the sound, upon our left, we come to Juan de Fuca Strait, which would lead 
us to the Pacific Ocean were we to follow it out. It is the most southern of all 
the waterways that connect the great sea with the network of channels inside, 
and formerly was much used as a part of the rqute to Alaska or Puget Sound 
from Portland, Oregon, or San Francisco, California; the steamer putting out to 
sea for a day if from the former port, and for four or five if from the latter, the 
passengers having all the discomforts of a sea voyage for that time. Where 
Magellan sailed over the Pacific Ocean it well deserved the name ; but along the 
rough northern coast the amount of stormy weather increases, and a voyage on 
this part of the Pacific is not always calculated to impress one with the appro- 
