Dresden enterprise and Sharon tribune. (Dresden, Tenn.) 1907-1997, 1921-07-29
Pacific Coast Is Becoming One OF
the Country'S Most I'M
portant Boundaries.
HAS INTERESTING HISTORY
Two Priceless Features Of Coast, san
Francisco Bay and Puget Sound,
Missed by Spanish Explorers In
Their Early Explorations.

ening OF the Far GaSCs tne SnllliuB VI
world interest to the Pacific, and the
rapid growth Of Its commerce, the
western rim Of the United States
where 1t touches the vastest Of the
worlds oceans is becoming one Of the
country's most important boundaries"
says a bulletin issued by the Washing
ton, D. O., headquarters Of the Nat
ional Geographic society.
+ ''This ripping line Of Pacific surf
marks the end Of the great Aryan
migration, which began ages ago In
some mysterious, unknown land Of
central Asia, surged through the deep
valleys Of the Himalayas, and has
since poured ever westward, making
the greater part Of the worlds history
az 1t went. Across this boundary Of
white colonization the yellow people
of the East have shown themselves
ready to flow In a counter current,
making complicated racial problems
and giving the western boundary an
ethnic Importance which none OF the
other three boundaries possesses.
"For centuries after the discovery
of the Atlantic coast Of America, even
for centuries after Balboa first looked
upon the Pacific at Panama and after
his compatriots sailed ships across Its
vast expanse, the Pacific coast Of what
is now the United States remained
practically unknown. Cabrillo, Span
ish navigator, 1t is true, entered San
Diego bay near the present Mexican
border in 1912 and his expedition later
smiled north as far as the big bulge
in the coast line. But the two price
less features of the Pacific coast were
missed; San Francisco Bay, one OF
the greatest, safest and best Of the
harhosS of the world; and the en-
trance to Puget Sound, where land
locked Seattle and a group Of other
fine harbors now handle large part
of the commerce between America and
the Orient
"This failure of early navlgators to
find San Francisco Bay, though many
of them passed up and down the coast
and the Spanish even made special
effort to discover q satisfactory har-
Dor, constitutes one Of the mysteries
of the Pacific seaboard. The bay was
first sighted from the land in 1863,
more than two hundred years after
the Spaniards began their search for
a Pacific coast harbOr, and 1t was six
years later when the first ship sailed
through the Golden Gate.
Where Mountains Meet the Sea.
1.-THE Pacific coast of the United
States is markedly different from the
Atlantic coast, especially that part Of
the latter south Of Massachusetts, with
its relatively low sandy shores and
it's outlying bulwark Of sand islands
and sand spits. San Diego bay, only
ten miles north of the Mexican border
is the only bay of major Importance
on the Pacific coast Of the Unitet
States land-locked by sand spit
Point Iona, forming the northern
! boundary Of San Diego bay, however
Is a ridge several hundred feet high
and from there northward to Canadi
with only few miles of narrow low
lands between the sea and the hill
or mountains by way Of exception, thu
coast is bold and rugged. Parts o
It are what biologists call 'drowne'
coast where mountains have sunk 81
that the water meets their steel
slopes Parts are 'uplifted coasts
where mountains once under the SCI
have partly emerged, and their slope
are still Tapped by the waves.
at is the mountainous and boil
character of the Pacific coast whic
sets It off most distinctly from tn
coast of the Atlantic. From a poin
20 miles north Of San Francisco on
sails northward for hundreds Of mile
alongside bluffs and promontorie
finding hardly any indentations Of IN
portance.
Numerous Small Bays.
"North of the main bulge of tn
Pacific coast, Cape Mendocino, sma
bays are more numerous in Californi
Oregon and Washington, and abo'
many of them railroads have bee
built and considerable commercial d
yelopment has taken place. FINAL
at the mouth of the Columbia rive
over 500 miles north Of the Goldt
Gate, a good deep water harbor
reached at Astoria. Ocean vesse
NAV even ascend the river to POI
land nearly 100 miles inland.
More than $50 miles north Of 81
Francisco is the ten miles wide stra
Of Juan de Fuca, the entrance
Puget sound.
AFTER an interval Of nearly 6
miles where British Columbia iron
on the Pacific, the Pacific coast aga
becomes territory Of the United Stat
as the southernmost point OF Alas
is reached. For more than a thousaI
miles to the roots Of the Alaska pc
insula the waters Of the Pacific bat
! the shores Of this territory, and
an even greater distance the long al
II of the peninsula and the Alueti
$500 -. 10 MINT etrnnn mt I'm