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Tre Marine REVIEW ' Tue Harpor oF SEATTLE IN 1909. Tuis VIEW Suows THat Portion of THE Harpor LYING NortH oF Mapison STREET. - The Harbor of Seattle, Washington' | UGET SOUND is the largest harbor on the north Pacific coast of the United States. The city of Seattle, situated on Elliot bay some 100 miles from the ocean, is the largest commer- Cal port on Puget. Sound. © Fo a certain extent Puget Sound as a whole contributes to the harbor facilities of Seattle. The same is true of Tacoma and the other harbors which will be described subsequently in this series of 'articles. For this reason before taking up the study of Seattle harbor in particular we will discuss the har-. bor of Puget Sound as a whole. The entrance to Puget Sound is through the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The general direction of the straits is north 84 deg. east, magnetic bear- ings. The variation of the compass is 24 deg. 30 min. east, therefore the true direction of the straits is east 18 deg. 30 min. south. The straits are 15 miles wide at the entrance, 20 miles wide at Victoria harbor, 101%4~> miles wide at the narrowest point opposite Beechey Head, and 90 miles in length. The length is measured from the in- tersection of the international bound- ary line with the meridian through the Tatoosh island light, thence east on the international boundary line to 'a point due south of Bentinck island, B. C., thence due east to the intersec- tion with the meridian through Smith island light. The minimum depth of water on this line is 30 fathoms, near Partridge banks, the maximum depth *Second of a series of articles the principal harbors of the coast. describing North Pacific s is 146 fathoms, north of Tatoosh 1s- land, while the average depth of the straits in the center is 80 fathoms. The water is deep enough to float large vessels practically from shore to shore; the 10-fathom contour is generally not more than one mile from shore, at many places' it ap- proaches as close as 1,000 feet, while at no point is it more than two miles from the line of mean low tide. No harbor in the world has a more spa- cious gateway; the straits are wide, deep and free from obstructions, shoals or bars. The prevailing winds in the straits are northerly in summer and _ south- erly. in winter. The tidal. currents are not generally troublesome. The storms in winter are often very. Se- vere. As a result there have been a number of disastrous wrecks in the vicinity of Cape Flattery and on the southern shore of Vancouver island. These wrecks, however, were nearly all caused by the usual dangers inci- dent to navigating the northern seas in winter and cannot be ascribed to any peculiar dangers at the harbor en- trance. It is generally agreed that the entrance to Puget Sound is in- herently less dangerous than the bars, shoals, etce., guarding the other har- bors of the Pacific coast and many of those of the Atlantic coast as well. While the conditions are such that ships and large lumber schooners are usually able to sail as far in as Point Wilson, and while they do occasionally sail even as far as Seattle or Tacoma, the great majority of the sail tonnage entering Puget Sound is towed into By H. Cole Estep port. The towing charges vary from $95 for a 250-ton vessel to $300 for a 1,500-ton vessel towed between Cape _ Flattery and Seattle. Table I, pre- sented herewith, gives some of the towing -charges in detail. These: charges place Puget Sound, as far as towing is concerned, practically on a par with the Columbia river and at a disadvantage as regards San Fran- cisco. Between Point Wilson at the inner end of the straits and Seattle is a body of water strictly known as Ad- miralty Inlet, although the general name Puget Sound also applies. This inlet, from Point Wilson to Seattle, is about 45 miles in length. Its general bearing is east 35 deg. south magnetic and east 56 deg. south by the true meridian. The minimum depth at the center of the channel is 23 fathoms; the maximum depth is 148 fathoms, and the average depth is 68 fathoms. The channel is deep from shore to shore, the 10-fathom contour being on an average not more than half a mile from the high tide line. In the main channel the tidal currents do not run more than two knots an hour on ex- treme tides while at most stages of the ordinary tides the 'currents are quite negligible. The range of tides in Elliott Bay 'between mean low- water and mean high-water is 11.5 .ft.; the distance between the mean of all high-waters and the mean of all low-waters is 7.6 ft. The entire channel, from Cape Flattery to Ta- coma, is well lighted and buoyed. At Neah Bay, near Cape Flattery, is stationed the U. S. life-saving tug