OTHER TRIPS.
Equally delightful are the little voyages over the main traveled waters of the Sound from Seattle or Tacoma to Olympia and Shelton, to Bremerton, Everett, Bellingham, Anacortes, Port Townsend, and Port Angeles; also out to the ocean or through the San Juan Islands to Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia. The mountains are always in sight although not so close as on the Canal trip, and there passes a continual procession of groves, hills, pebbly beaches, rocky palisades, gardens, orchards, green meadows, and summer homes.
Entrancing is the view at the sun's rising or setting when a myriad shades of reddish and bluish tints are painted on the hovering clouds, which assume various grotesque shapes above the shimmering waters; and even at night time when threading the channel marked by the twinkling beacon lights, or entering the harbor of a city resplendent with thousands of glittering incandescents.
Photo by Webster & Stevens
"When Sol in joy is seen to leave
The earth with crimson beam."
COMMERCE.
Besides scenes that appeal chiefly to the esthetic are many that suggest the state's commercial importance, for these waters produce many million dollars worth of fish each year, and the neighboring shores have the largest saw mills in the world, supplying a big share of the 4,000,000,000 feet of lumber which is Washington's annual contribution and insures her first place in the Union. Out from Bellingham and Anacortes may be observed the rare spectacle of huge fish traps being raised, with sometimes 50,000 Puget Sound salmon wiggling within their meshes, soon to be preserved in the largest canneries of the world and shipped to all corners of the globe. Big ocean liners heavily laden are seen in the harbors or met upon the waters, carrying away cargoes of manufactured products which for the entire state approaches the stupendous sum of $300,000,000 yearly.
THE EAST SHORES.
The loudest buzz of commercialism is to be heard on the east shores, where fertile valleys and sightly plateaus checkered with farms and gardens stretch away to the foot hills of the Cascade Mountains, comprising five of the most densely populated counties in the state. Here, too, are four of Washington's five largest cities, Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Bellingham, each the center of a rich territory supporting numerous smaller cities. At the southern limit is Olympia, the state capital.