Orcas, Lopez, Shaw, Blakely, Decatur, and numerous smaller islands constitute the county of San Juan and the San Juan Archipelago.
The island of that name contains about fifty square miles, and is famous for its limestone quarries and lime-kilns. It is also famous as the seat of the San Juan war during the contention between England and the United States concerning the ownership of these islands, England holding that Rosario Strait was the main channel, while the United States held that the Canal de Haro was such.
AMONG THE ISLANDS.
A goose has been credited with saving Rome. A pig it was that saved the San Juan group, for when collector Ebey, in 1854, appeared on the island and proceeded to confiscate a British pig or two on the refusal of the owner to pay import duties on a band of sheep from Vancouver Island, the British unicorn exalted its horn and asserted its claim to the archipelago. So serious did the dispute become that General Harney, commanding the Department of the Columbia, placed a force on the island of San Juan to hold it at all hazards, and a post was maintained there until the settlement of the controversy by
