Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-01-12

Immense coal deposits exist. Seattle
| mad about goo inhabitants in 1880. and
| mas GOO now. It's business mounts IN
IN proportion. Three ocean steamers
| arrived within 81 hours while / was
there. 1t has three daily newspapers,
two of which receive and publish i'm
portant news the same morning it an
pears In The Nerc York Times. That
may astonish come of your readers, bat
| will give intimation that we are not 70
slow as we are remote here on the wild
shores ofthe furthest ocean. II would
be easy to write full chapter ON Seat
tie, Its wharvss and warehouses, coal
bunkers and business houses, schools
and churches; but have not time for
details. Enough to say that it possesses
genuine enterprise, and it cannot fail
that IN time great city shall look on
the beautiful bay and see a merchant
fleet below gathered from all oceans. II
| Is wonderful to see in such place i'm
mense factories turning ont furniture
from hardwood grown near by: barrels
to supply the growing needs of all the
coast. lumber to be shipped to the fur
therInost parts of the earth. Here, also,
are great foundries and machine shops
for turning out boilers and engines and
making machinery for sound mills:
shipyards where they can build any
thing from yawl-boat to an ocean clip
per of thousands of tons. 1t is notice
able that the wheat ships built on the
Sound have proved to be ocean racers,
and have left many clippers far behind
on the voyage to Europe. Ship-buildjng
If wooden ships were as common as
they we're 25 years aeo-wOuld make the
Sound famous the world over.
The next morning we breakfasted
early at the arlington and took the
"mixed'' train for the Newcastle coal
mines. 1t was decidedly mixed, for an
endless string OF coal cars was tipped
on with the passenger coach, which was
not palatial by any means, but suits the
trade. For while We skirted the bay,
then turned up the Duwamish river,
which presented swampy shores, with
wooded ridges not far off. Soon we came
to the cultivated valley of White river,
where broad meadows and pastures en-
courage the manufacture of butter and
cheese. The White river dairies send
their products all over the west coast,
aud have honorable regulations every
where. Newcastle is up out of the bot
toms, reached by steep grade, 130 feet
to the mile. and is very rough wooded
country, rich in wonderful coal depos-
is.
Before leaving this valley, with its
grass-farms and meadows, / will show
how productive the land is and how
profitable. l met Oh board the train a
friend Of years ago, who had been farm
ing this land, and stated that it yielded
three tons Of hay to the acre in the worst
years. The land was originally slashed
and burned, and the grass-seed sown in
the ashes. After time the stumps
rotted and the meadows became smooth
as we see today; but this land was never
grabbed or plowed; timothy seed sOwn
Is years ago has never been renewed.
A farm, close by RentOn, another coal
town, yielded four tons of hay to the
acre last season, which was sold on the
ground for $l6 per ton, 250 tons; SO that
this land almost paid, from its earnings,
6 per cent. interest ON $1,000 an acre.
Quaintance enable me to learn many
facts as go along, and to discriminate
as to their accuracy. 1t is current re-
port that lands along the Sound are
shallow soil and worthless when the
timber is off. That is true of some of
the land near the shore, but only for
short distance back. Much of the land
is excellent close to the Sound shores.
The soil of the uplands is deep and fer
tile, calculated to bring all the cereals
and fruits and vegetables grown sue
cessfully in the Willamette Valley.
All these years have been in blissful
ignorance about the actual value of the
soil of Western Washington. Il has q
great extent of rich creek and river bot
tom, of valleys that weres once inland
seas, as the Sound is yet, and wide areas
of uplands that are not mountains, pos
sessing the best of soil; but the whole il,
with small exceptions, very heavily
wooded, the bottoms with vine maple
and alder, and sometimes with heavy
forests, including extensive groves of
cedar. Wherever you go, on bottoms or
uplands, the wealth of cedar forests is
wonderful. Spruce, fir and cedar CON-
stItute, over this wide stretch of coun-
try. source of wealth already great,
but certain to be more appreciated as
the forests of other lands are destroyed.
1t is shameful to realize that vast areas
Of Western Oregon and Washington
have been denuded of their forests by
raging fires that have swept over the
hills and mountain sides rs the besom
of destruction once swept Chicago.
These are caused by careless hunters or
camping parties, or. perhaps, are the re-
suit Of reckless plemeditation on the
part of irresponsible persons. There
punish such offenders and to preserve
for the future the finest forests in the
known world.
As the agricultural resources Of the
different regions Of Oregon and WASH
inQton (from the summit of the Rocky
Mountains to the Cascade range on the
east, and from the Cascade range TO the
ocean ON the w6st) the great interior
basin occupies over twiCe the territory
to be found west of the Cascade Noun
tains. 1t possesses vast plains that can
be reduced to cultivation and made pro-
ductive, and can support great herds
and docks, % that it 10 Immediately
available, and is sought as the best land
for the immigrant TO occupy. General
Francis A. Walker, in recent paper,
shows that in three years time all the
best open country within the national
domain viii be exhausted by the opera
ton Of the homestead Law and the pre-
emption act, and after that only second
and third rate land will be obtainable.
Be that az it may, another summer viii
eee the Northern Pacific Railroad I'm
ished. and such stretch Of immigration
will come across the continent to us a.
will soon occupy all the best open coun-
try.
The coal veins that abound in certain
extensive areas near the sound and
along the west coast of Washington and
Oregon must become source Of i'm
mense wealth, supplemented a. they
are by extensive deposits OF iron ore.
At Newcastle We came to GOAL mines
that are furnishing 600 tons day fof
shipment, owned by the Oregon Inn
provement Company, who have four
great steam golfers that convey their
GOAL TO Portland and San Francisco.
There are several coal veins opened.
We visited one that was 10 feet thick.
solid black diamonds, glowing jet in
color. At RAnton the drst mine 10
cams to, six miles below Newcastle, the
coal ia Ignite; at Newcastle Il is much
better quality Of Ignite; still further
back, ON Green river and the upper
waters Of Cedar Eiver, the veins become
bituminous, and 20 miles beyond there.
al good anthracite has been discovered
as Il said to exist. Theee arc far into