210. Fisheries.—There are oysters in Puget Sound, which, though smaller than those of the Atlantic waters, have a delicious flavor. All the rivers of this region are visited each year by the salmon, one of the most valuable of food fishes. The salmon lives in the sea, and each year the full-grown fish come up the rivers to lay eggs. At this time they are easily caught. Salmon canning on the shores and rivers is an important industry.
211. Manufacturing and resources for manufactur ing.—The cities of this val ley have grown rapidly, and are thriving centers of manu facture, with sawmills, ship yards, machine shops, and many factories to can fruits and fish, and to make prod ucts of wood. What is the population of the three larg est cities on Puget Sound? of the three largest cities in the Columbia Basin? The resources for manu facturing a great variety of articles in the Willamette Puget Sound Valley are re markable. These are : (1) Climate. (Sec. 207.) (2) Lumber. (Sec. 208.) (3) Power. The high and rainy mountains near by have more water power within easy reach than can be found in the whole of any three countries of Europe. (Fig. 194.) There is also a coal field, with coal of fair quality.
(4) Abundant food. The farms within the valley can produce milk, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits for a much larger population, and still have a surplus for the canning and syrup factories. East of the Cascades are the apple orchards of the Hood, Yakima, and Wenatchee valleys. In the Columbia Basin is the great source of bread and meat supply.
(5) Nearly all manufacturing districts im port some raw material. The Willamette Puget Sound Valley has the all-reaching sea and splendid, safe harbors as natural trans portation facilities, as well as good trans continental railways.
212. Foreign trade.—The valley has a large ocean trade and many advantages for it.
(1) Good harbors. Puget Sound, a deep and beautiful body. of water, has enough harbors to hold ten times the ships of all the world. At Bremerton the United States
Government has a navy yard where large war vessels are sometimes built. Ocean steamers come with ease to the excellent har bors of Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. Portland, on the Willamette River, a short distance from the Columbia, has deepened her harbor so that the largest ships can enter, greatly increasing her foreign trade.
(2) There is a rich hinterland (land that lies back or beyond), and many trade routes reach into this rich interior. The Willamette Puget Sound Valley opens not only toward the west, but also toward the east. No other Pacific valley has this double advantage for trading with the interior. Look at the loca tion of Portland, Oregon, on the map of navigable rivers (Fig. 80). Explain how ocean steamers and river boats make Port land the natural place for a city.
Transcontinental railroads bring freight over the Cascades from Spokane and the Columbia Basin, and from Duluth and Minneapolis. The trains that carry lumber and fruit to the East sometimes bring back Texas cotton and eastern manufactures for export across the Pacific. Much of the return trade of the Orient reaches New York City by this same route.
Vancouver is the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which is the great transcon tinental line that serves the Canadian area between Lake Superior, Winnipeg, and Puget Sound. Unfortunately, the country back of Vancouver is so rough that there is not much room for farms, but the region has great lum bering and mining resources.
(3) The steamship lines from Portland and Puget Sound carry food and manufactures to Alaska; lumber, machinery, cotton, and flour to Japan; China, and the Philippines; Central America and South America draw some of their supplies from this region; and there is a heavy export through the Panama Canal to the Eastern States and to Europe. What do the returning steamers bring?