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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1887)
OUR INLAND PACIFIC SEA. 117 been so extended in its aDDlicaiinn B . , . , . , . de8iBBte the whole bodSTtolri n y"U& h south of the Gulf of Georgil Itt'? "f T? 'U of the Straita of Fnn, SaSVtU TP h"? "T1 '.'7 'm,l plication of that name, wnow poVulT t5 i 1 ij , , w PPQ1&r- and commerce are creatine wca th and names given by Vancouver and which venture, it will aoon become . large and now appear on the map are Mount Rai- important portion of the xn.UbVro. mer (after Rear.Admiral Rainier, of the aUl state of Washington, which, from English navy), Vashon island (after it location, and the fmxon of thi. Captain Vashon), Port Orchard (the magnificent inland sea, must become one name of the officer who discovered it), of the moat important .late, of the Possession sound, Port Townsend (in American union, compliment of the "noble marquis of Paget sound is a body of water ocu. that name"), Whidby island (after Lieu- liarly adapted by nature, not only for bo tenant Whidby), Mount Baker (after ing the aeat of a largo foreign commerce, Lieutenant Baker), Bellingham bay, Do- but for the conveyance and interchange ception passage, and New Dunginess. of the varied domestic product of a On the fourth of June, being the birth- most extensive region. A glance at the day of King George, Vancouver landed map will show how great, in prox)rtiou at Possession sound, and took formal to the superficial area of water, is the possession of the country in the name shore line, aggregating two thousand of his sovereign. He applied the name miles in length, and how the bay, inlet New Georgia to all the surrounding and channels ramify a region om hundred country, as far south as the California and fifty miles long, by seventy wide, in possessions of Spain. As he emerged such a manner that every jiortion of it from Puget sound, or more properly, lies, practically, on the shores of the Admiralty inlet, and entered the Canal sound. The timber, coal and iron of del Rosario, which he re-christened Gulf that region, which are, in quantity, prac of Georgia, he fell in with the two Span- tically inexhaustible, and of a superior ish vessels, Sutil and Mexicann, which quality, have but few miles to go to had entered the Straits of Fuca a few reach deep water, where they may be weeks later than he, and were then en- loaded upon ships and conveyed to any. gaged in exploring those upper waters, port in the world, open to sea-going vea An interchange of courtesies followed, sel. The agricultural product, since which led to an agreement to unite their farming is done on the land lying along labors; but jealousy soon put an end to or contiguou to the streams entering this, and they then acted independently, the sound, and which are navigable for both making quite thorough explora- light draft steamers, can also avail them, tions and comparatively accurate chart selves of this great, free water way, io of that long channel between Vancouver going to market or reaching a central island and the main land. The subae- shipping point. A hue of railway, the quent history of that region, how it was Northern Pacific already connect ihe occupied by representatives of the great sound with Portland, and tho w.U, Hudson's Bay Company, then by Amer- the east, through the two great over, ican settlers, became a portion of the land ronU terminating ,o lh.t e.lj. United States by the treaty of lMfi was In a few month the Northern Pacific attacTedVOregon in 1S4 and became will have completed .direct route to the