The geography and topography of this sheet are alone a wonder and a study.  Glance upon the map.  The elements of earth and water seem to have struggled for dominion one over the other.  The Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Gulf of Georgia to the south narrow into Admiralty Inlet; the inlet penetrates the very heart of the Territory, cutting the land into most grotesque shapes, circling and twisting into a hundred minor inlets, into which flow a hundred rivers, fed in their turn by myriads of smaller creeks and bayous—­a veritable network of lakes, streams, peninsulas, and islands which, with the mountain ranges backing the landscapes on either hand, can not fail to be picturesque in the extreme.  Here on the placid bosom of this inland sea, the pleasure seeker can enjoy all the delights and exhilarating influences of ocean travel without its inconveniences.  No sea sickness, no proneness to reflect on “to be or not to be,” but, amid the bracing breezes, the steady, easy glide of the commodious steamer over pleasant waters, takes him through scenes as fair as the poet’s brightest dreams.  This “Mediterranean of the Pacific” throughout its length and breadth is adorned with heavily-wooded and fantastically-formed islands.  The giant firs are the tallest and straightest in the world.  Here the “Great Eastern” came for her masts, and here thousands of ships obtain their spars yearly.

To repeat, the scenery is indeed something unsurpassed.  A ride over these placid waters, in and out, around rocky headlands, among woody mountains, along beautiful beaches and graceful tongues of velvety meadows—­all ’neath the shadows of towering, snow-clad peaks, is a delight worth days of travel to experience.  It enraptures the artist and enthuses even ordinarily prosy folks.  There is no single feature wanting to make of such places as Tacoma, Seattle, and Port Townsend, the most delightful and agreeable watering places in the world.  Surrounded by magnificent and picturesque scenery, with beautiful drives and lovely bays for yachting purposes, with splendid fishing and sport of every description to be had, with a climate that would charm a misanthrope, why should they not become the favorite resorts on the Great West Coast?  These facts led to the building of the magnificent Hotel Tacoma, at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars.  Other such caravansaries will follow, and in time Puget Sound will be famous the world over for its incomparable attractions for the health and pleasure seeker.

The average traveler has but a faint idea of the wonderful resources of this grand empire.  Puget Sound has about 1,800 miles of shore line, and all along this long stretch is one vast and almost unbroken forest of enormous trees.  The forests are so vast that, although the saw-mills have been ripping 500,000,000 feet of lumber out of them every year for the past ten years, the spaces made by these inroads seem no more than garden patches.  An official estimate places the amount of standing timber in that area at 500,000,000,000 feet, or a thousand years’ supply, even at the enormous rate the timber is now being felled and sawed.