Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-01-12
SEATTLE w. T, FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY H. 1888.

acre. and all other sorts of lands that
are fruitful in proportion. We went
aboard the steamer Idaho to make the
cruise down the Sound to BellinRham
Bay aud back. Capt. Brennan. its CON-
uaandor, Is thorough sailor, who has
navIsa.ed every sea to bring mp in this
Tar away waste of waters. 1t stOfmed
nearly all the time We were aboard the
Idaho. The shores we're wrapped in
mist. Inc very sawmills wheezed as
the steam exhausted, as if the fog stuck
In the engines throat; but We found
good companionship in the cabin or in
the pilot house, where the captain very
modeStiy told how he worked his way
up, fatherless lad, from cabin boy to
mate, first earning money to send his
brothers to school, and then, when he
was no boy any more, learning to read
himself. He Is rough diamond, is old
Brannan, but travellers on the Sound
have implicit cOnfidepce that he knows
his business. One thing III ost strange
Is that through all its turnings and
windlnRs, past Its thousands of miles of
shore line, the Sound waters are trust
worthy. They are free from shallows
and have no sunken rocks. Whereve,
there Is water there is generally enougt
for man-ofwar. It is absolutely tr g
safest region for ordinary navigati IN
known. So far a. have heard, rncre
have been no accidents ON tho Sound
from its discovery by Juan de Fuca un-
til now. Once inside Cape F.s ttery,
there il strait twenty miles wide to
drive through and safe water every-
where.
There was little variety on the Sound
dunnR those rainy days. We tied up at
utsalady, mill point on CamanO Isl
and: whore they keep over half a hun
dred men at work and manufacture
half million feet of lumber every
week. A ship was loading and another
was anchored in the offing awaiting its
turn. The mill foreman very kindly
introduced Us to the mysteries of the
lumber trade; We witnessed the hand
ling OF huge logs by steam power, the
tearing ofthem down and ripping them
up with the double circulars; then the
great gang OF ~ saws went crashing
through the squared log to make planks
or boards. 1t is fearful and WOnderl
full thing-a Puget Sound sawmilI. Ii
you watch while you will see the huge
Of the woods hauled out of the
Sound waters into the mill; see it rolled
about as If Titanic hands managed it;
see it become shApely by degrees, as it
passes from one saw to another; finally
it will run through the planer and be-
come the best quality Of flooring. The
mill at Utsalady has ID electric lights
Illuminating every part of
the mill; the wharf, where the cargo
WAS loading, was light AZ day. Back Of
the mill some distance, fed by an end
less chain working ON an incline, an inn
mense bonfire was blazing. That fire
was fed by the refuse of the mill-the
slabs that could not be utilized for
either lath or pickets. To make away
with this refuse automatic ::power gives
it to endless flames; the mill does not
often stop long enough to let the fires
We waited at Utsalady for the tide to
serve us to Lac0nner, q thriving town
built on small knoll, beside the wa
ters of slough that meanders through
the lower Skagit delta. Laoonner is
the business center of that region;
around il are tide lands, diked to keep
back the sea, and famed for their pro-
digi0us yields. We pushed in by a ris-
ing moon after midnight, past jutting
through . narrow pass, and
found LacOnner. We went ashore by
the light of the moon, coming through
dripping clouds, took the meanderings
of the slough, then went back again and
waited to see the steamer shoot through
Deception Pass. Turning back ON our
course We skirted Fidalgo Island. Stop
ping by the way to load wood from an
open crib in little bay, and then in the
light of q broad, full moon that the
clouds and the rain could not entirely
obstruct, We headed eastward toward
what seemed an inlet, but was really a
narrow pass between two large islands.
Deception Pass is 90 narrow that a
strouR hand might throw . stone across
it. Directly east of it is the Strait of
Fnca and beyond that the ocean. OF
course, the tides that pour through the
strait rush through the pass with accel-
Grated speed, and the presence of large
islands on either hand gives more scope
tor the tide to act. So. when the tides
ebb or flow, the water rushes through this
pass at . rate of 30 miles an hour.
90 through with the tide,
when it is Just at full or at low
stage. II would have been q grand in
oidsnt to have enjoyed that passage by
daylight. Al it was, the Baron could
not bring his optics to bear fully on the
scene, and did not care to attempt it.
Our steamer was only q moment in the
Jaws Of the pass, and then shot out to
windward of it and went northward.
We stopped now and then At farm land
ings on the shores Of inhabited islauds,
for there are large islands that have
population. Toward noon
Of the second day We passed revenue
cutter lying at anchor and anchored
the Idaho in the waters Of Bellingham
Bay.
Bellingham Bay has beentalked Of as
the possible terminus of the Northern
Paci6csRailroad. They have talked Of
all sorts Of places as that possible tor
minus, even sometimes expecting that
it will be ON emo Of the islands that con-
front the Straits Of Fuca, and are only
separated from the mainland BY narrow
or by . slough. There used to
be a coal mine here, bat it vas aban-
doned some years ago. The coal was OF
rather inferior quality and bad . disa-
greeable tendency TO spontaneous COM
bustion. A R0od agricultural country
exists in its vicinity, for WhAtc0m
County promises 70 be the best agficul-
tural region Of Western Warrington.
From this We retraoed our steps. all the
time orOWded with passenger. for the
kravel ON this route increases Conftnu-
Ally. Ono Of our fellow-passengers on
The return was Morris Haller, son Of
Col. Haller, United States Army, no
kirod from nNtivA n0FVio0 Last 0pfinQ.