One can pass the entire summer on Puget Sound without seeing a bit of rough weather. The largest ocean liners ride here safe from the storms that pound sometimes against the outer coast line; for its waters compose one great harbor, protected by the forests and mountains. One may see "Uncle Sam's" powerful fighting machines almost any day steaming toward Bremerton, one of the U. S. Naval Stations, where the largest dry dock owned by the U. S. Government is located.

But this peaceful body of water is not for the big vessels alone. It could not have been improved if created especially for the yacht, the motor launch, the row boat and even the venturesome canoe. Upon its surface is held many a local speed contest, and the annual power boat race is run from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Seattle. Conditions here are ideal for the college regatta and for the difficult feats of the hydroplane. During festive days many important events are pulled off, while the happy spectators, dressed in holiday attire, are crowded along the water's edge or perched on the ridges and house tops above.

For cruising, no waters in the world offer such advantages—never threatened by tempests and always within reach of some of nature's most glorious beauty spots. Landing places suitable for camps are easily found, from which short inland excursions may be made through alpine meadows by winding trails to the summit of some mountain or to the shores of some peaceful lake.

Those who are not fortunate enough to have their own craft are not necessarily deprived of enjoying these waters; for regular passenger steamers, of ample capacity and stately appearance make regular trips throughout the year from every city on its shores to nearly every other part of the Sound; while special summer time excursions are made from the metropolitan centers to all the principal points of interest on Puget Sound and to the cities of British Columbia and Alaska.

HOOD CANAL.

The waters that put one in closest touch with the mountains are in the narrow channel, or fiord, known as Hood Canal, extending southwesterly and bending back into the heart of the Kitsap Peninsula. Tourists riding over these waters for the first time are elated with the splendors, and the frequent visitor never tires of the inspiring scenes that everywhere greet the eye. The eastern shores reveal the neat farms and settlements in Kitsap and Mason counties, while the western edge is at the very foot of the Olympic range, whose white serrated ridges are continually visible from the deck of a passing steamer. Easily distinguishable also are the deep canyons cut by the several main streams working their way towards the canal, plunging over rocky cliffs and creating falls of exquisite beauty. The Little and Big Quilcene, the Dusewallips, the Duckabush, the Hamma Hamma, and the Lilliwago, are some of the mountain streams whose canyons with rugged trails are familiar to those making frequent pilgrimages thither.

[A BUSINESS SECTION IN SEATTLE—ELLIOTT BAY AND THE OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS BEYOND.]
Photo by Curtis & Miller.

Other attractive places are Lake Cushman, a mountain summer resort reached from Hoodsport, and the rich Skokomish valley containing the Indian reservation of the same name. At Union City one may take the stage over a well traveled road through groves and vales to Shelton, county seat of Mason county, where regular steamers connect with all Puget Sound points—thus encircling the Kitsap Peninsula.