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Show 6 BASIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1500 reaches of Puget Sourid. The harbor of San Diego, near tiie soutKemHGne of California, though it affords a certain degree of shelter, is as yet of minor importance; and the mouth of the Columbia River is admirably situated for commerce, but the shallowness of its waters and the great bar at the entrance have thus far rendered it impracticable for vessels of deep draught. North of the United States boundary, on the Pacific, British Columbia and a large part of Alaska abut upon a fiord coast; outlying islands and deep, narrow, cliff- bordered inlets make good harbors, but the adjacent interior is undeveloped and forbidding. A somewhat similar fiord coast is found on the Atlantic side, along the Canadian provinces and, to a greater extent, in Maine. The indentations of Maine, while comparatively shallow, offer in many cases excellent harbors. Massachusetts Bay, formed by the projection of Cape Cod, contains Boston Harbor, and the hospitality of the coast increases as one progresses southward. Narragansett and Buzzards bays are succeeded by the shores of Long Island Sound, with many small, protected havens, until at New York an extraordinary combination of unrivalled natural advantages makes that point the most important centre of commerce on the continent. The depth of water, the strikingly favorable arrangement of the land about the mouth of the Hudson River, and the fact that the Hudson is the commercial |