Warre and Vavasour^ 1B45-6. 55 from superficial observation appears to afford anchorage and protection for ships of any tonnage. The above mentioned harbors contain an abundant supply of fresh water, in which the rest of the coast is very deficient. Large rivers are formed in the winter season, which become perfectly dry during the summer. There is coal in the neighborhood of Puget's Sound, and on the Cowlitz River. The specimens used by the H. B. Com- pany were obtained from the surface, and were probably on that account not found good. The specimens of lead found in the mountains on the coast are apparently very fine. The fisheries (salmon and sturgeon) are inexhaustible, and game of all descriptions is said to abound. The timber is extremely luxuriant and increases in value as you reach a more northern Latitude. That in 50 to 54 degrees being considered the best. Pine, spruce, red and white oak, ash, cedar, maple, willow and yew grow in this section of country north of the Columbia River. Cedar and pine becomes of an immense size. At Nesqually, near the head of Puget's Sound, is the farm of the Puget's Sound Company commenced in 1839* sup- ported chiefly by the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. They here cultivate wheat and potatoes, but the mag- nificent ranges of rich prairie country between the shores of Puget's Sound and the Cascade Mountains to the east, are chiefly used as pasturage for the immense herds of cattle and sheep, the greater number of which were brought from Cali- fornia in 1840-41. From Nesqually we crossed the head waters of several large streams, among others the Nesqually and Chehalis rivers, rising in the Cascade mountains, extending along the coast to Latitude 49°. These rivers have their channels sunk, in some places, upward of a hundred feet below the level of the country, rendering them extremely dangerous and difficult to traverse at the seasons of high water.
- That is, as a venture of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. There
was a settlement at that point as early as 1833.----
