lege of boating on the bay, are about the only amusements.
Shoalwater Bay is about twenty-five miles long by from four to seven wide. As its name indicates, the bay has many shoals, but with numerous deep channels, which make it easily navigable. There is plenty of water on the bar—mean low-water being eighteen feet, and mean high-water twenty-four. There is a light-house on Toke's Point, the extreme north-west point of Cape Shoalwater, at the north side of the entrance. The light is of the fourth order, fixed and varied by a flash. There are many fine sites for building, both on the peninsula and on the main-land opposite.
Several rivers empty into Shoalwater Bay—North, Cedar, Willopah, Palix, Nema, Nacelle, and Bear. Of these, the Willopah is most important. Its whole length is not more than forty miles, yet it is navigable for vessels of twelve feet draught for a distance of fifteen miles from its entrance; and its valley contains a large amount of the richest land in the Territory. Next to the Willopah is the Nacelle. A portion of the Nacelle Valley is prairie, and the remainder covered with Cottonwood. This country is rapidly settling up, and is represented as being very handsome, with a soil of rich, black loam. The valley, it is thought, affords room enough for about one hundred farms. There is a large amount of Government land in these small valleys, of the best character, on which colonies of farmers might find excellent farms, at Government price.
Fourteen miles north of Shoalwater Bay is a smaller, but more important one, called Gray's Harbor, covering an area of about eighty square miles. The country between these two bays is a narrow strip of sandy prairie near the sea, and back of it small lakes, and
