His descriptions of the scenery—­Mounts Baker, Rainier, St. Helen’s, etc.—­were as enthusiastic as those of the most eager landscape lover of the present day, when scenery is in fashion.  He says in one place:  “To describe 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 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.  Every hidden nook in the depths of the woods is searched and refreshed, leaving no stagnant air; beaver meadows and lake basin and low and willowy bogs, all are kept wholesome and sweet the year round.  Cloud and sunshine alternate in bracing, cheering succession, and health and abundance follow the storms.  The outer sea margin is sublimely dashed and drenched with ocean brine, the spicy scud sweeping at times far inland over the bending woods, the giant trees waving and chanting in hearty accord as if surely enjoying it all.

Heavy, long-continued rains occur in the winter months.  Then every leaf, bathed and brightened, rejoices.  Filtering drops and currents through all the shaggy undergrowth of the woods go with tribute to the small streams, and these again to the larger.  The rivers swell, but there are no devastating floods; for the thick felt of roots and mosses holds the abounding waters in check, stored in a thousand thousand fountains.  Neither are there any violent hurricanes here, At least, I never have heard of any, nor have I come upon their tracks.  Most of the streams are clear