, 1886-06-24

CASCADE EHhNji EAl..HoAh-
: triptErou-h Puget Sound, stop
ping at the principal points, is we'll
calculated to inspire any stranger OF
even average Intelligence with a
sense Of or vast eolidity and endur-
mg clements Of future wealth and
greatness. Our eleven hundred miles
of snyrc line dotted with bays and
valleys. rich in natural wealth of sea
and land must. be seen to be fully
camprehonIcd Our fisheries barely
touched - Yet, our interminable
/ forest stretching for miles inland over
rolling foot hills. that furnish the
basis Of u numbering business on a
scale large enough TO make a Maine
ilumbtrman feel insignificant, that
melt away with impcraeptiblo SLOW
ness under a drain which sends six
| hundred millions OF feet annually Of
the finest lumEer IL the world abroad
into both homo and foreign markets,
saying nothing OF vast local consump-
ton, spars 10 Boston, shingles to
Chicago, etc.. our capacity for ship
building, equal 10 the requirements
Of The civilized world, yet scarcely
more than tested thus far; our coal
mines extensive enough already to
insure Il supply Tor the Pacific coast
for the next century at least, aside
from the certainty that far more eX-
tensive deposits will be discovered in
the future; our limestone in noun
famous lodges, assaying as high as
SO per cent, supplying the markets of
the coast already, and capable OF an
output only circumscribed by demand,
our rich and boundless iron ore al
ready forming the nucleus of manu-
featuring industries innumerable;
our capabilities for dairying, grazing,
farming, hop growing, etc--all these
may be talked about eloqueEtiy on
the platform, or written up in ever
such attractive style for the reading
public, yet it requires actual ocular
demonstration TO convey an adequate
conception OF the country.
The Puget Sound basin is capable
of maintaining population at least
a dozen times greater than that
which it supports at present. Pas
sing through to
With their splendid developments at
least q decade ahead of ours, one
cannot help feeling that while Port
land with her fine business houses,
her palatial private residences. her
magnificent high school building
costing S125,O00, and the valley con-
tiguons. stretching a hundred miles
or more southwark with its broad
fertile acres, prosperous towns, ex =
tensive factories and other evidences
OF a civilization well nigh ripe
while all these conspire to make one
doff his hat in respect to the aggres-
sive Yankee genius that has reclaimed
the native wilds and within forty
years made the desert to
Blossom as the rose"
After such fashion "where rolls the
Oregon" yet such evidences serve but
TO demonstrate the rich capacities of
the country northward to the Straits
of Fuca 1t is 'all of piece" SO to
speak The time is coming. and at
10 distant day, when the rolling wilds
from the mouth Of the Columbia to
Cape Flattery. as yet scarcely vexed
by the husbandman's art, when the
scattering settlements from the Cow.
litz to Port Townsend along the west
side of Puget Sound, will all be un
unbroken chain of productive farms,
rumbliDg factories, growing towns,
expansive fields, heaven-pointing
spires and steepled college5-gener-
Gus fruit of nineteenth h-century civil
iza.ion. 1t requires no prophetic eye
to foresee this; no prophetic tongue
to tell it; why? Because it is aresult
not outside of the usual course. The
capabilities are here, and under the
usual civilizing process the result
must be similar to that attained else
where under like conditions. viii
Portland and Port Townsend be con
nected by rail? We answer by ask
ing: VIII duck swim? As soon
as the slowly developing conditions
demand railway connections they will
come as a natural and inevitable re-
suit.
While in Portland the other day
we were shown the old tan yard site
where the hides were tanned that
formed the principal consideration
for the transfer by our townsman,
f. W. Pettygrove. Esq, of the major
portion of Portland's present site.
That the old gentleman will live to
see his dream realized-the connect.
ing OF Portland and Port Townsend
by rail-we have not the slightest
doubt. Tie grandfather of the writer
hereof wintered where Portland now
is, in 1903 9. Could he Row see the
civilization there his comment might
| be interesting