, 1873-08-21
Letters from Washington Ter
ritory.

iiiO'
A friend has sent us as literary curl
osity, copies of the Door County Advo-
cate, published on the northern frontier
of Wisconsin, containing several letters
from Washington Territory. over the
signature of ''R. Graham" Whether
this signature represents an identity or
Q myth, we have no means of knowing.
no one in or about this country being
willing to confess an acquaintance with
the author of these letters. the sole merit
of which is, a capacity for impudent
and audacious lying which we have nev-
or seen excelled in print. We have only
room or inclination to give few speCi-
mems from columns of descriptions all
of like character. The following are
extracts from letter dated Olympia,
May 26:
"The climate is too cold and frosty to
admit the growth of but few products,
wheat, oats. grass and potatoes being
the principal crops; corn and all kinds
of vines are total failure; no kind of
fruit does well ard fruit trees die after
six or seven years growth from some
unknown cause. frosts occur generally
every month in the year; this month l
have seen several cold, frosty mornings;
the 14th INST furnished US ice one fourth
of an inch thick. The seasons
here are neither one thing or the other,
but too much mixed for comfort, health,
or agricultural purposes" >"
at is decidedly wrong to entice peo-
pc to this cold, unproductive and ster-
lie country; it possesses no resources or
advantages whatever, capable OF sus-
tanning a population; numbering and
little coal mining is the only business OF
any importance and that is attended
with great expense and operated by cor
est but their own, and employ mostly
Chinese laborers, consequently their
business is of little advantage to the
settler or the poor man"
eff it was possessed of as good eli
mate as Wisconsin there would be some
inducements for emigration and the
farmer. Although very little of the
Territory is susceptible of settlement,
being hilly, gravelly and heavily timber
ed, and subject 10 overflow, the best
farming lands have been reserved for
the Indians. and think it would have
been an advantage to the nation if they
had let the Indians have the whole of
the country, for it is only fit for them
to live in, and the poorest country for
white folks this side of Siberia.
"The shores of the Sound and all its
ramified branches present about the
same uniform appearance of high, bro
ken bills and headlands. projecting out
between the bays and inlets, invariably
covered with thick growth of valueless
fir timber or mat Of spontaneous fern,
or here and there may be seen bank of
gravel, all unmistakable signs Of the
barrenness of the SOIL"
"I'he best portions of this country
has been settled the past twenty-five
years and its agricultural qualities thor
Oughly tested by experienced farmers,
and the result is that they could not
make it pay or sustain life from the
products of the soil and necessity has
compelled them to seek other pursuits. :"
"There is no oysters or shellfsh here
that l would punish my stomach to
swallow, unless owed it a grudge; a
few small. inferior oysters and CLANS
are found about the head of the Sound
and pure necessity only compels the
natives to eat them. Fish-it.is easy to
comprehend the abundance of fish here
when they are worth eight cents a pound
in market; in fact there is next to no
good fish here in the Sound; few hall
but are caught near the straits and a
few salmon, but not near enough is
taken to supply the limited demand.
The kinds caught here such as porgies,
founders, tom or rock cod and some
other varieties are all poor, small, in
ferior fish and but little used except by
the Indians and Cinnamon. The only
reliable and profitable fisheries are on
the Columbia River, and their fish are
the only ones viii IA will sell in market.
From Seattle, June Is, this veracious
correspondent writes:
''They say it seldom SHOWS or freezes
here (they should have adled in dog
dsysl, for last winter snow fell at one
batch foot and half deep and 1e-
manned on the ground for several days,
and at the same time ice made on Lake
? Washington too thick for a steamboat
to break up. Their delightful climate
compares favcrably with the abundance
of game and water fowl they tell US of,
Qoul stories, indeed), which consists of
o few chipmucks, rats, skunks, and
crows, while gulis, looms and shitepokes
comprise the list of water fowl; every
edible animal and fowl has wisely taken
their flight from this gloomy waste; and
I am about to follow
After reading the foregoing, we run
no risk in pledging the unanimous vote
of our readers upon Puget Sound 10 Mr..
Graham for the championship of liars.
Space forblds further comments to-day
we will continue the subject tomorrow
CoRREcTIoN.-Th Mtelligencer is con-
strained by the Kalama Beacon to take
back statement that Capt. Ainsworth
owned property at Tacoma and was the
kinsman, by marriage, of Gen. McCaf
yer. If personal association had any re-
levancy to the matter, it might have
made much stronger case, without
any thing to take back. Ainsworth,
McCarver and Dolph Hannah, were
partners and failed in business together
in California many years ago. They
came to Oregon together and have been
ON intimate terms ever sincs. though
not publicly associated in business. Nc
Carver came to Tacoma abont the time
Hannah went to Missouri to look up the
heirs of the Caruthers estate, from
which venture the latter cleared $50, eco
by compromise As soon as it was known
that Ainsworth was appointed Com
missioner to locate the terminus, Han
nah hastened to Tacoma to join interest