Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1921-06-23

k<apid growth Of lfs commerce, the
I*ksterp rim Of lie United States
where it t.touches the vastest Of the,
world s oceans Is becoming one Of
the country . most important
boundaries, says bulletin is
sued by the National Geographic
ociety from its Washington head
Quarters.
HThis rippling line of Pacific
surf marks the end of the great
lAryan migration, which began
tages ago in some mysterious 'un-
known land of central Asia, surg
ed through the deep alleys of the
tlimalayasr and has since poured
ever westward, making the greater
part of the worlds history as it.
went. Across this boundary of
white colonization yellow people
OF the Easht have shown them
seles ready to flow in "a counter
current, making complicated ra-
cial problems and giving the west
ern boundary an etlnic import
ance which none of the other three
boundaries possess.
For centuries after the discov-
tery of the Atlantic coast of Amer
lea, even for centuries after Bal.
ooa first looked upon the Pacific
atl Panama after his compatriots
sailed ships across its vast ex-
panse, the Pacific coast Of " hat is
now the United States remained
practically unknown Cabrillo,
The Spanish navigator, it is true,
ontered' San Diego bay near the
present Mexican border in 1912
md his expedition later sailed
north as far as the big bulge in
the coast line. But the two price
less features. of the Pacific coast
was missed San Francisco bay.
one Of the greatest, best and SAT
sst of the harbors of the world,
and the entrance to Puget sound.
where land-locked Seattle and
tgroup of other fine harbors now
aandle' large part Of the CON-
merce between America and the
| orient. ...-
-a"This failure of early navigat-
,rs to find San Francisco bay,
I hough many of them passed up
nd down the coast and the Span
SIN even made special effort to
discover a satisfactory harbor,
constitutes one of the mysteries
u the Pacific seaboard. Francis
Drake is supposed to have an
;hOred in Bodega bay, about 40
tmiles northwest Of San Francisco,
and numerous other explorers Wis
ted the tiny Brakes bay, only 80
miles northwest of the Golden
Gate, and the Farralone islands,
ala equal distance due west of the
great bay, but none of these So
Tourners appears to have obtained
I,he slightest mkling of the exist
ence so close by of the matchless
Eharbor. The bay was first sight
I'd from the, land in 1869, more
han 200 years after the Spaniards
began their search for Pacific
coast harbor, and it was six years
later when the first ship sailed
hrough the Golden Gate.
| THE Pacific coast of the United
states is markedly different from
he Atlantic coast, especially that
part of the latter south of Massa-
chusetts, with its relatively low
sandy shores and its outlying bul- :
wark of sand islands and sand
spits. San Diego bay, only ten
miles north of the Mexican border.
is the only bay of major import
ance on the Pacific coast of the
United States land-locked by a
sand spit. Point Iona, forming
the northern boundary of San Di-
ego bay, however, is ridge sew
eral hundred feet high, and from
there northward to Canada with
only a few miles of narrow low
lands between the sea and hills
or mountains by way of excep-
ton; the coast is bold and rugged.
Parts OF it are what geologists
call a drowned coast where
mountains have shrunk so that the
water meets their steep slopes.
Parts are 'uplifted coasts, where.
mountains once under the sea
have partly emerged, and their
slopes are still Tapped by the
waves. ..'..