Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1865-09-27
hyde PARIS VERMoNE, WEDNEspAY sEpEEMBFR 27. 1866.

and north, and even around to Buenos
Ayres, come here for building materials,
and France finds here her cheapest and
best spars and masts Much of the ship
ping employed in the business is owned
on the, Sound one mill company has 2
vessels of from 800 to 1000 tons each.
The business is butt in its very infancy
it will grow with the growth of the Pa
cific coast, and with the increasing doarth
of fine ship timber in other parts of the
world it is impossible to calculate the
time when, cut and saw as we may all these
forests shall be used up, and the supply
exhausted. @2"# #'.af lasI'a
h the size of these Washington territory
trees is rather overpowering,- haven't
seen the big trees of California yet,-and
not daring to trust unaccustomed eyes, we
resorted to the statistics of the lumber
men. Trees, six and seven feet in
diameter, and 200 to 250 feet high, are
very common perhaps rarely out OF sight
| in the forest; eight feet in diameter and
800 high are rarer, but still not at all
uncommon the builder of the telegraph
| line has hitched his wire in one case to
cedar which is fourteen feet in diameter;
monster tree that had fallen-the forest
is full of fallen trecs---measured 325 feet
long; and another tree, at the distance Of
80 feet from its root, was feet in diane
ter Masts for ships are readily procu-
able, straight as an arrow, and without
knot for 100 feet, and 40 inches in diam
eter at 80 feet from the base. I shall
have to stop my figures here, lest my char
acter for truthful reporting grow ques
tionable. ....a..
Out of the sound and straight across
the Strait, 20 miles, we encounter the
rocky shores of Vancouver Island; search,
ing along we meet hidden hole in the
wall, and, steaming in. there opens out a
little wash bowl of bay !; and here is
Victoria. It's a charming surprise-the
prottiest-located and best built town on
the Pacific coast, and next to Portland in
size and busiuess--a healthy co-partner.
ship of American enterprise and enthusi-
asm and English solidity and holdfast-
ness. The population ranges from 25OO
IN summer and dull times (now) to 5000
in winter aud the flush season, when the
mining across in British Columbia pays
well. aud the miners come to town to spend
their harvest. Out of the town and its
trade, the island offers little development ;
there are some poor-paying gold mines
J good bituminous coal is found in abun.
dance, and proftably worked here and
there is farming in patches, which is ex'
tending, but most of the food eaten here
, comes from California and Washington
The whole white population of the island
is no more than 5000 to 1000, and ovel
these reigns the cumbersome and expen
, sive machinery of an especial English Co
, lonial ,government-partly appointed by
the crown partly represcntative-with .
f parliament that sat 0 months last year
: spending 100000 year, and raising il
J out of the business of this town by sys
) TEN Of taxation many times more burden
, some than our civil war has imposed or
our people, Including tax on all sales
besides special licences for each particular
t business, aud an income tax on all but
$ giving in return practically good gov
ernment, port free of customs duties, or
, der in the city, and excellent roads int
7 the country.
Over across the gulf of Georgia tht
same thing is repeated-there stretches
, out the vast region of British Columbia
! with another 1000 population, largely
) mining and American, but scattered from
the new capital of New Westminster at thu
mouth Of Frazer river, north and east t
5 the Carriboo country and the valley o
$ the Kootway, 500 and 600 miles away
. duplicating this formal and expensive ma
{ chinery of government, with English cas-
: ties almost for gubernatorial residences
!, and $4,000 year salaries to live il
. them with, and along retinue imported
0 British officials to match; raising revenue
: on this side the gulf, however, from Gus
toms duties and a SOC tariff on ever,
t ounce of gold dug, in part and givinI
0 nothing to boast of back but better road
to the mines than the American states oil
c fer,
The Frazer river gold digging in Brit
S ish Columbia are about worked out now
4 few besides Cinnamon are washing Il
: them this year and the rush Of the whit
e miners is to the more distant and bette
}, paying regions of Carriboo and Kootway
3, though these, as all others on the coast
e are overshadowed this season by the fam
4 Of Idaho and Montana.
Victoria is the chief commercial poin
V for these two British provinces, and i
Is part, also, for Washington territory; an
e much profitable smuggling goes on acros
It these waters aud imaginary torrltoria
IS lines. There are fewer Americans in Viz
ha toria than formerly; they are steppin
N out, as its prosperity seems waning ilpu
III the English elementis apparently y increa'