The Serenity Of The Climate, The Immeasurable Pleasing
Landscapes, And The Abundant Fertility That Unassisted 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 bounties which nature seems ready to
bestow on
Cultivation." "A picture 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
statements were received in England with a good deal of hesitation.
But they were amply corroborated by Wilkes and 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-gun ship. I venture
nothing in saying there is no country in the world that possesses
waters like these." And again, quoting from the United States Coast
Survey, "For depth of water, boldness of approaches, freedom from
hidden dangers, and the immeasurable sea of gigantic timber coming
down to the very shores, these waters are unsurpassed,
unapproachable."
The Sound region has a fine, fresh, clean climate, well washed both
winter and summer with copious rains and swept with winds and clouds
that come from the mountains and the sea.
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