, 1885-12-31
SAN sUAx CoUHyg.

DEAR ARGUs:-Agreeable' to promise l
viii give you + few items descriptive of
this county, its industries and taxable
property from the assess ment OF 1885,
and the amount of grain from the thresh
ers; always presuming people 20 under
stand that this county Is comprised of 4
dozen islands. viz: San Juan, Orcas.
Lopez, Shaw's, Decatur, Blakely, Wal
dron, Stewart, Johns, SpiedaD, HeDry's
and Jones' islands, and San joan the
largest Of the group. The county seat is
located on the northeast side, where
there is g thriving business done at the
stores Of Joseph Sweeney and Waterman
& Katz. During the past year it has as
sumed the appearance of a village; quite
a number OF nice private residences have
been built. There is q good hotel, and
4 court house which the people have rea-
son to be proud of. There are two nice
church buildings two miles from town
the Presbyterian and Catholic.
NEW INDUSTRY
Has just been started in the harbor,
about quarter Of mile from the stores
the location and business point is called
Oil City, where four good sized buildings
have been erected, also good wharf.
Mr.. Bell and several other gentlemen
form the company. Mr.. HaberEham is
The general manager about the works
One building is quite high. They have
elevators to carry the fish to the vats, and
other machinery, worked by steam
engine. The name Of their works (Oil
City, names part of their business. They
steam dog. fish, extract the oil from the
whole fish by means of asteam apparatus.
refine it SO that there is no offensive odor
to the oil, the remains of which they man
ufacture into fish glue and the residuum
into fertilizers or fish guanO. The COM
pany has the steamer Lone Fisher char
tered at 80 per diem to carry bait to tie
fishermen on the fishing grounds, buy
their fish at cents each and carry them
to the works. Their capacity, under
stand, will require about 1000 fish per
day. The people of this community are
already feeling the benefit OF such an en-
terprise; in fact it is help to the whole
county.
THE LIME BUSINESS
In the county is the most extensive. There
are three lime works on San Juan Island.
The old original, owned and operated By
James McCurdy, has manufactured about
AZ, COG barrels of lime dJErins the Eoresera Mt
year, only about one-half of what he
could manufacture if there had been
my demand for lime. He don't seem
TO have made much impression On his
immense ledge after twenty years work.
Six miles north lie the Roche Harbor
lime works, owned and operated by r.
Scurr & Go. They have very extensive
works. Fortunately for them nature has
lone good deal. Connected with the
immense deposit of lime stone is spa
cious land locked harbor, with clear
ship channel and depth of six fathoms
at the lowest tides. They have only man
ufactured 1900 barrels OF lime the pre-
sent year, 1 200 barrels Of whichis snugly
stored in their capacious lime sheds Oh
the wharf. Here is situated the
SUB PORT OF ENTRY,
Where there were 335 foreign entries and
;learances the past year ending June 30.
1885, and three clearances coastwlse, two
If the bark Southern Chief with 1000
tons of coal for San Francisco. On her
second trip the bark came right in the
harbor in tow of the Richard HOlyoke;
the ship Rosie Welt coming at night was
cleared on the outside, Capt. Cameron
of the Tacoma never having been III the
harbor. Value of experts for the year
20 British Columbia, about $32,0 900; fees
and collections about $1,000.
The Eureka Lime Works have been
shut down all season, being bonded by
". D. Scott G. Co., who failed to make
he rifle. Port Langdon Lime Works.
operated by Scott & Co., burned about
5. 900 bsrrels of lime the past season.
STATISTICS.
The total valuation of property in the
county is S24O,229, assessed as follows:
Number OF acres, 26,74G; value, &56,44S;
improvements on same, S92,414 personal
property, s91, ,38S. lumber of sheep in
the comfy, j, 900; average clip about 81
pounds. Number of horses assessed,
1900; cattle, 1900. The main crop on
the islands is oats, OF which about 10000
bushels were raised wheat, 1900 bushels;
barley, 5000 bushels; peas, 5000 bushels.
Potatoes were q short crop the present
season. The fruit crop was fair and the
quality unsurpassed anywhere. East
Sound takes the lead for fine fruits and
the bulk of the fruit raised in the county.
That part of the county has improved
very much the past year.
The population OF San Juan county
is 1858.