Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-01-30

[ Willamette Fdrnaer.l

western washington Territory had
little or no open country, but with few
exceptions was forest region. Along
the river bottoms are thicksts of vine
maple, ash, alder and willow: on the mp
lands oak sometimes grows, but usually
fir, spruce and cedar. Along the Colum-
bia are some rich bottoms. The Cow
litz has an extensive valley. All the
region from the Cascade Mountains to
the sea and n1rthward from the Colum-
bia to Puget Sound possesses much the
same character. The uplands are fir
forests and the bottoms tangled thick
cts. When cleared they make the rich
est meadows and grain fields. The
greater portion of this region of a hun
dred miles square is vacant. The Pacific
Division of tho Northern Pacific Rail-
road passes through it, from Kalama,
on the Columbia, forty miles below
Portland, to Tacoma on Puget Sound,
l05 miles, and is dotted with villages.
The country presents rugged appear
ance, but has good soil. In few years,
when immigration shall have filled up
the open wheat land east of the noun
tains, this timbered region will be ap-
preciated. 1t can be cleared as the
forests of the New England and Middle
States have been cleared. When cleared
these lands will have especial value
from nearness to market and mild eli
mate. In time these Western regions
of the North Pacific will be the most
valuable on these accounts; meantime,
they are partially neglected. They at
tract continual immigration and witness
constant improvements, but the great
rush of new corners is towards the Open
country that waits only for the pillow to
stir the soil to produce prodigious crops
of wheat.
To give some idea of Western Wash
ing We call attention to the Chehalis
Valley, that lies between the N. p. Il. II.
and Gray's Harbor. 1t was once-so
say geologists-a sound covered by the
ocean. Evidence exists that the whole
coast has risen from the sea. The Che
halls bottom has sixty or seventy town
ships-1, 10000 acres-of the richest
soil, covered with vine maple thickets
and heavy forests, but of inexhaustlble
fertility when cleared. That is but one
section of many. Theirs are settlements
all through that region, but not one man
lives where there should be ten.
PUGET SOUND COUNTRY.
Puget Sound is the most remarkable
water in the world. 1t is surrounded by
continuous forests that reach back TO
the SUBMITS of the Cascade and Olym-
pic ranges. The streams that come
down from the mountains on every side
have fertile valleys. Some of them are
already occupied and well cultivated.
Puyallup and White River and their
affluents are well settled, but there is
abundant room for settlers on the Sno-
qualmie. Snohomish, Squak, SkaRit and
Nootsack, A well AZ on q valley in
Whatcom county where Fraser's River
once flowed. Take the Sound margin,
towards the Cascades, and thousands
can find homes on rich valley land.
1t was once believed the land around
the Sound was worthless, that its forests
stood on rock without soil, but time has
demonstrated this as only true of a
small extent of country near the Sound.
aud that all the upland between the
streams and extending to the mountaina
is rich, deep soil that will produce any
thing that can grow in that climate.
Such is the Sound country in brief; Gov
cred with forests that the world needs
and will soon furnish q market for. and
possessing, deep down, exhaustlsss sup
plies Of coal the world also needs. Be-
sides these it has lime and iron ore, and
so possesses in boundless supply ele-
ments of wealth such az established the
greatness and supremacy of Great Brit
ain, and have made New York and Penn
sylvania what they are. There is every
evidence that petroleum will soon be
fouad in paying quantity.
In addition to all this. the ocean and
Sound waters teem with valuable fish.
Take all the resources Of the Sound
country, and the manufacturing inter-
ests that are already developing, and II
ia evident they require and can support
heavy agricultural production. this il
can have, for its soil can supply it. The
resources Of that section are not surpas-
sed by any country, and exceed those Of
any other portion of the Pacific States.
Il il impossible to do more than to
briefly allude to them. The great saw
mills and the thousands of men working
to supply them with logs and to run the
mills, make commerce OF their own;
the coal mines tributary to Seattle can
load thousand ton ship every day.
Seattle is growing and enterprising
city of 650O inhabitants; Tacoma, the
present railroad terminus, has 5000, and
Is making great progress; Olympia ia
the State capital, q beautiful place with
several thousand people. Port Town
send, near the ocean, is an important
point. The immigration towards the
Sound country sets in the direction of
Whatcsm county, near the British line,
O section that possesses unrivalod agri-
cultural advantages and il rapidly de-
veloping them.
Puyallup Valley, east Of Tacoma, is
famous for its hop yards. The year
1882 saw half a million dollars 90 into
that little settlement as payment for ths
products of a few hundred acres The
aoil of the Sound country Ia well ad anfed