The L'Anse sentinel., 1921-07-15
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.

Washington, ID. C.-"Wlth the awak-
Cnlng Of the Far East, the shifting of
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 bulletin issued by the Washing
ten, ID. c., headquarters Of the Nat
ioAdl Geographic society.
"rhls rippling line of Pacific surf
marks the end OF the great Aryan
migration, which began ages ago in
sdne mysterious, unknown land Of
ce1tral Asia, surged through the deep
valleys of the IIimalayas, and has
since poured ever westward, making
the greater part of the worlds history
Gs II went. Across this boundary of
whi'e colonization the yellow people
of The East have shown themselves
ready to flow In counter current,
making complicated racial problems
and giving the western boundary an
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
Is now the United States remained
practically unknown. Cabrillo, Span
ish navigator II 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
less features Of the Pacific coast were
missed; San Francisco Bay, one Of
the greatest, safest, and best Of the
harbors Of the world; and the en-
trance TO Puget Sound, where land
locked Seattle and group of other
fine harbors now handle n large part
Of the commerce between America and
The Orient.
,"rhis failure of early navlgators TO
fnc San Francisco Bay, though many
Of them passed up and down the coast
and the Spanish even made special
effort TO discover n satisfactory har-
hor. constitutes one OF the mysteries
of the Pacific seaboard. The bay was
first sighted from the land in 1769.
more than two hundred years after
the Spaniards began their search for
Pacific coast harbor, and II was six
yearr later when the first ship sailed
through the Golden Gate.
Were Mountains Meet the Sea.
= "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
\ ats outlying bulwark OF sand islands
md sand ,spits. San Diego bay, only
- IN miles north Of the Mexican border
Is the only bay of major Importance
en- the Pacific coast Of the United
States land-locked by sand spit.
Point Iona, forming the northern
boundary of San Diego bay however,
j. n ridge several hundred feet high,
and from there northward to Canada
with only few miles of narrow low
bands between the sea aud the hills
or mountains by way of exception, the
iroast is bold and rugged. Parts of
IT ARE what biologists call drowned
,const,' where mountains have sunk so
that the water meets their steep
2 slopes. Parts are 'uplfted coasts
where mountains once under the sea
have partly emerged, and their slopes
nre still Tapped by the waves.
ut Is the mountainous and bold
character of the Pacific coast which
Rets 1t Off most distinctly from the