[Illustration: Plate No. 14.--U. S. Army Post, Vancouver, Clarke
County.]

[Illustration: Plate No. 15.--Stock-Raising in Clarke County.]

[Illustration: Plate No. 16.--A Clarke County Fruit Ranch.]

Through its center north and south the Cascade mountains in a zigzag
course lift their clustered peaks and mountain passes from four
to eight thousand feet above the sea, while Mount Olympus and his
colleagues higher still poke their inspiring
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front heavenward. Between these two white and green clad mountain
ranges, protected from the blizzards of the southwestern plains
and from the hurricanes from the ocean, lie in safety the placid
waters of Washington's great inland sea, matchless Puget Sound.

Where else upon the globe is such a diversified stretch of tranquil
water, upon whose shores the ocean tides ebb and flow, upon whose
surface the navies of the world could maneuver to their heart's
content, while visible from shore to shore are the vast evergreen
forests, interlaced with winding waters and stretching gently upwards
till they reach the visible mountain peaks a hundred miles away,
thousands of feet skyward?

Scarcely less enchanting is the view eastward from the Rainier's
lofty height--a vast stretch of hill and plain almost surrounded
by green mountain sides, through whose gray and green fields flow
the great winding courses of the mighty Columbia and the lazy Snake
rivers, while a multitude of smaller streams gleam through the