If Washington is mighty in forest possession, provided with fuel
for centuries in its coal beds, rich in precious metals, with great
open waterways full of fish roads from the ocean and millions of
fishes in its inland waters, with game upon its thousand hills and
its vast plains loaded with waving grains and red with luscious
fruits, still its crowning glory is its matchless scenery.
Towering above the clouds, with its head crowned with eternal snows,
its sides forever glistening with icy glaciers till their feet touch
the green tops of its foothills, near the center of the state, stands
in imposing grandeur the highest mountain of the states--grand,
old Mount Rainier.
[Illustration: Plate No. 11.--Fish Cannery at Port Angeles, Clallam
County.]
[Illustration: Plate No. 12.--A Forest Scene in Clallam County.]
[Illustration: Plate No. 13.--North Bank Bridge Over the Columbia
River at Vancouver, Clarke County.]
[Illustration: Plate No. 14.--U. S. Army Post, Vancouver, Clarke
County.]
[Illustration: Plate No. 15.--Stock-Raising in Clarke County.]
[Illustration: Plate No. 16.--A Clarke County Fruit Ranch.]
Through its center north and south the Cascade mountains in a zigzag
course lift their clustered peaks and mountain passes from four
to eight thousand feet above the sea, while Mount Olympus and his
colleagues higher still poke their inspiring
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front heavenward. Between these two white and green clad mountain
ranges, protected from the blizzards of the southwestern plains
and from the hurricanes from the ocean, lie in safety the placid
waters of Washington's great inland sea, matchless Puget Sound.
Where else upon the globe is such a diversified stretch of tranquil
water, upon whose shores the ocean tides ebb and flow, upon whose
surface the navies of the world could maneuver to their heart's
content, while visible from shore to shore are the vast evergreen
forests, interlaced with winding waters and stretching gently upwards
till they reach the visible mountain peaks a hundred miles away,
thousands of feet skyward?
Scarcely less enchanting is the view eastward from the Rainier's
lofty height--a vast stretch of hill and plain almost surrounded
by green mountain sides, through whose gray and green fields flow
the great winding courses of the mighty Columbia and the lazy Snake
rivers, while a multitude of smaller streams gleam through the
forest sides of the mountains over innumerable waterfalls. Here
within the foothills you gaze upon the largest lake within the
state, a beauty spot to enchant alike the artist and the sportsman.
Deep within its rocky sides and full of speckled beauties lying
like a mirror in the stretch of green hills about it, lies Lake
Chelan, and on its unruffled bosom a fleet of boats ply for fifty
miles beyond its outlet till reach the mining foothills of the
mountains. A hundred miles eastward, still among the scattered
pines of northeastern Washington, the Spokane river tumbles in
masses of foam and spray over a succession of rocky falls on its
way to the Columbia, while still further on the Pend d'Oreille
and upper reaches of the Columbia river flow close up among the
mountains and foothills and present a series of beautiful combinations
of rock, trees, hills and valleys, of forests and waterfalls of
magnificent beauty. Washington in its scenery is magnificent in
proportions, wonderful in its variety, grand and imposing in form
and feature--picturesque--enticing--"a thing of beauty and a joy
forever."
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PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES OF WASHINGTON.