scene. The Continent is yet in ignorance of what will be one of the
grandest show places, as well as sanitariums. If Switzerland is rightly
called the play-ground of Europe, I am satisfied that around the base of
Mt. Rainier will become a prominent place of resort, not for America
only, but for the world besides, with thousands of sites for building
purposes that are nowhere excelled for the grandeur of the view that can
be obtained from them, with topographical features that would make the
most perfect system of drainage both possible and easy, and with a most
agreeable and health-giving climate."

A more enthusiastic writer says: "Puget Sound scenery is the grandest
scenery in the world. One has here in combination the sublimity of
Switzerland, the picturesqueness of the Rhine, the rugged beauty of
Norway, the breezy variety of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence,
or the Hebrides of the North Sea, the soft, rich-toned skies of Italy,
the pastoral landscape of England, with velvet meadows and magnificent
groves, massed with floral bloom, and the blending tints and bold color
of the New England Indian summer. Features with which nothing within the
vision of another city can be placed in comparison are the Olympic range
of mountains in front of Seattle, and the sublime snow peaks of the
Rainier, Baker, Adams, and St. Helens, with their glaciers and robes of
eternal white, and the great falls of the Snoqualmie, 280 feet high, near
by."

[Illustration: MOUNT ST. HELENS, WASHINGTON, FROM NEAR MOUTH OF THE
WILLAMETTE RIVER. Reached via the Union Pacific Ry.]

The geography and topography of this sheet are alone a wonder and a
study. Glance upon the map. The elements of earth and water seem to
have struggled for dominion one over the other. The Strait of Juan de