The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-12

French engineers in the Imperial dock-yard |
at Toulon, and the comparative tests OF it
with Japanese and other oaks, made by the
ship-builder Westervelt in Hakodadi, demon
strates that IL is unequalled. The ports at
which it is shipped can be made at night as
well as in open day The island, wonderful
in its climate and in its wealth of soil, coal,
timber, ores, and fishes, is wonderful also in
the number and excellence Of its harborso
The colonial authorities of Vancouver's
Island have officially sanctioned the declara-
ton that cher geographical position gives
her commercially, and in a military point of
view strategically, the command of the North
Pacific, and that ito the golden regions and
fertile plains of British Coi:.mbia, vancouver's
Island will be as the strong man armed that
keepeth the door"
EFFECT OF NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Thepeople of the United States oughtto have
that door in their own hands, and the open
ing and shutting thereof. Particularly should
they control this command of the North
Pacific, since it is certain that the North
Pacific Railroad will soon be built from Lake
Superior to Pugets Sound. The Strait of
San Juan de Fuca will be the outlet of the
road to the Pacific. Vancouvers Island walls
the strait on the north. The commerce, the
industry, the manufacturing the agriculture,
that will spring up on Puget Sound and its
shores under the influence Of this continental
railway will be amazing. The shore lines
of that inland sea are 1900 miles long. On
the eastern side they are fringed to the
water, and covered back to the mountains,
with forests of pine fir, and cedar of height
and diameter, of clearness, strength, aud
straightness of cleavage that the Atlantic
slope people cannot be made to comprehend
and refuse TO believe. SO deep are these
waters and so bold their banks, that in most
parts of the Sound man-of-war may anchor
with twenty fathoms under her stern-post and
have her jib-boom among the trees on the
shore. Twelve huge saw-mills there are
making lumber for the Pacific coast the Sand
wich Islands, Japan, China and British India.
Some of these cut 10000 feet day. One
of them owns and constantly employs seven
teen large ships
.o et'au COAL SUPPLIES. agoIla g g..
| And yet the lumber business of Puget
| Sound is in its infancy. Its fisheries are un-
| touched. The thirty miles outcrop of excel
| lent bituminous coal on the east side of the
| Sound has only been picked at in two or
| three places. The lower vein. of this coal is
sixteen feet thick The upper vein, inter
| mittingly worked back of Seattle is four and
half feet thick. The soil all around the
Sound is perfect for wheat and for fruit. Its
| natural grass is ''bunch grass, which cures
| to hay on the ground, and in January and
| February combines the quality of timothy
and oats. The cattle of Puget Sound are not
sheltered in the winter, nor fed at the rack
nor in the stall. They range the year through,
| and, reversing the proverb of Atlantic slope
| agriculture, come out spring fat. Ice for do
mestic use and saloon drinking is not to be
| got around the Sound, save in exceptional
| years. The thickness of window-glass is the
| measure of the depth to which the prevailing
| climate freezes fresh water in the ponds
in the woods east of Olympic two winters out
| of three. nA
| FUTURE GROWTH.
The North Pacific Railroad will girt this
| vast body of water with towns, villages, and
farms. 1t will build somewhere on its shores
vast terminal city, to which steamships,
| trading up and down the Pacific coast and
| with Japan, China, and India, will regularly
run. That city surely will be the depot for
the whaling business of the world. There
will in time be dense population on the
Sound and in Washington Territory. Its
lumber, iron, copper, coal, and water-power
will develop vast system of manufactures
There will be immense wealth in
| Puget Sound-and the door to the
Sound is Vancouver's Island and a
''strong man armed keepeth it." Now the
people of the United States should say to
General Grant, the head of our Government,
as have said to him the citizens of Victoria: :
''We request that in any negotiations which
| nioy 10 PohulAS VI unuoISdhou OotWocu your
Government and that of her most gracious
Majesty for the settlement of territorial or
other questions, you will endeavor to induce
her Majesty to consent to the transfer of this
colony to the United States" 1t is neces-
sary to us. The interests Of Northern Ore
gon, of the future States of Washington and
Montana, and of the whole country between
Lake Superior and the Pacific, require that
we should absolutely command the inlet and
| outlet to Puget Sound-N " T5ibalue
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