The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-12-18
Washington Territory and Its Re.
sources.

earth. These forests lie on Puget Sound
and are accessible by the sound and bv
their streams running to the ocean. The
most common trees are the pine and fir.
The latter averages 200 feet, and MANY
of them are 800 feet in height and twelve
feet in diameter at the base. One stick
of timber is represented to have been
heWed in these woods 124 feet in lenpth.
and squaring twenty-four inches at the
small end, free from sap. This vast
timber belt has been cut into but little.
The laws of the United States are yery
stringent to prevent the waste of timber,
and an agent has been appointed espe.
cially for this Territory to prevent the
waste of this timber treasure. He is
called a timber inspector. Eastern
Washington consists of II, 200, 900 acres
of grazing prairie land. On this land
grows bunch grass which is very nu-
tritious, and vegetables during ten
months of the year. During the re-
naming two months it stands in dry
condition, and cattle feed upon it with
the best of results. Five million acres
are wheat-growing land, which pro.
duced, according to the statistical re-
ports of this last year, thirty-five bushels
of wheat to the acre. Many instances
are known where the production went
as high as seventy or eighty bushels. to
the acre. In the mountains, and in fact
in every county in the Territory, it is
represented officially by Gov. Ferry
that coal is found near the surface of a
very superior quality. Iron is accessi-
BILE and of very good quality in all por-
lions of the three main ranges of noun
tains, the Coast, Olympic and Cascade.
In the northern portion of the Cascade
Range, on the Snake River, gold has
been discovered to be very abundant,
the miners making on an average S.
per day. The water advantages of
Washington are unequaled in any other
portion of the world. The Territory is
bounded on the west by the Pacific
Ocean, on the south by the Columbia
River, which divides it from Oregon,
and partially on the north by Puget
Sound, which penetrates it from that
direction and separates it from the Brit
ish Possessions.
Puget Sound covers an area of 1000
square miles. The water of the sound
is deep and the shores are bold, so much
so that vessels of the largest class can go
directly up the sound seventy miles or
more and find safe anchorage. 1t is
free from rocks and bars, and is pacific
at all seasons of the year. High winds
never prevail. They have recently taken
to planting and cultivating eastern oys-
tiers there. The product is an excellent
oyster, and the probability is that Wash
ington Territory will become the great
oyster-producing section of the Pacific
Coast. CLAIMS of the soft-shelled variety
have been found in great abundance and
of monstrous growth, some of them
weighing from seven to ten pounds each.
There are eighty-five varieties of fish in
Puget Sound. The catch of salmon DUR
ing the last year was 10000, 900 pounds.
1t is canned and sent to nearly all the
markets of the world. The returns to
those engaged in salmon-taking and
packing amounted to over $1,000, 900.
The drying of cod is carried on very ex-
tensively. The gadus, species of cod,
is very abundant. 1t is larger than cod,
and of finer flavor. Fish can be dried
better than anywhere else on the Paci-
fic coast, or the Atlantic either, for that
matter, because further north it is too
cold and further south it is too dry.
They can be cured and semitic market in
more moist condition there than the cod
can in Maine. Upon the coast are two
harbors, Gray's and Shoal Harbors.
There are few inlets of which l have any
knowledge on the Pacific Coast of the
United States north of San Francisco,
with the exception of the mouth of the
Columbia and Puget Sound, so that that
Territory monopolizes nearly all the
harbors on this coast of our country.
The Columbia River affords navigable
water seven hundred and twenty-five
miles in extent, with its tributaries.
Navigation is uninterrupted with the ex-
ception of the cascades in the river,
about one hundred and fifty miles from
its mouth, called the Dalles, around
which navigation is had by rail. The
Government of the United States made
an appropriation for the purpose of ex-
cavating these distinctions, and in a
very few years it is quite certain that we
shall have uninterrupted communica-
ton through the Columbia River to
Eastern Washington.
There are fifty rivers in the Territory,
more or less, many of them cascade
rivers running from the west into Puget
Sound, affording great facilities for man.
ufactures, which in the future are sure to
come, because, in addition to the natur-
al resources of wood, iron and coal, the
raising of great numbers of sheep now
affords an immense crop of wool, which
will be utilized at home instead of being
exported. The best agricultural por-
tions are found in eastern Washington,
the center of which is Walla
Walla, one of the largest and most flour.
ishing towns in the Territory. The eli
mate is delightful and uniform. All &C
counts agree on that point. The tenn
perature rarely falls below 80 above zero
in winter, and seldom goes above 70 in
the summer. They have rainy season
and dry season, the former beginning
in October and continuing until spring,
the latter covering the remaining months
of the year, so that the wheat harvest is
always completed during the dry sea-
son. The population is $4,000 white
people, chiefly native-born Americans,
emigrants from California, Oregon, New
York, Indiana and Kentucky. The In
dams number $4,000, and live on reser-
vations in the northern and western por-