The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-01

Increase in one year. -....-........-..$ 727,574
Percentage of increase. .......... 6291
Owing to the scarcity Of rolling stock on
the railroads ramifying the great wheat
fields of Eastern Washington which ex-
listed from the harvest time of 1890 up to
the middle of December only very small
part of the surplus grain could be carried
to the seaboard. But for this unfortunate
circumstance the shipments for 1890 would
probably have trebled those of 1889. At
this writing December % wheat is pour
ing into Seattle and Tacoma at the rate of
lbs to $50 car loads per day. There is now
fair supply of tonnage for foreign, and
the grain will have quick dispatch. 1t is
estimated that the full capacity of the
railways will be taxed for the next four or
five months to get the surplus grain to
Underwater on Puget sound.
1t is less than three years since Puget
sound had its first direct rail communica-
ton with the vast grain fields of this state
lying east of the Cascade mountains.
Previous to 1888 all the products of East
ern Washington were carried to
tide-water at Portland and Astoria,
Or; yet Puget sound was so much
cheaper and more accessible harbor that
shippers by paying an additional local
Ga distance of 145 miles) still got wheat to
England at less cost than if it had been
shipped from the Columbia river direct.
To divert traffic from channels which
have been followed for nearly third of q
century is one of the most difficult problems
known to commerce, and to explain how
Puget sound has taken in two years from
the Columbia river much of the carrying
do I, ken ,oI
that river ever since the earliest develop
ment of Washington territory involves
comparison as a maritime port, of Puget
sound with the Columbia river. This COM
parison, however it may be received by our
southern neighbor, will not be odious to
the residents of Washington and to the
large number of eastern people who have
interests in this state.
Early in the eos, when the discovery of
gold on Salmon river occasioned rush to
Idaho, the Columbia river was the only
accessible route. A line of steamboats,
was established and with portages around
the distractions filled all the requirements
of the carrying trade. Some years later
the cattle industry occupied the vast bunch
grass plains and furnished traffic for the
steamers. About 1870 these bunch grass
ranges began to be cultivated for wheat
with the most marvellous results,
in a short time, ever known to
agriculture in the United States, and
eclipsing the world-fanous fields in the
Mediterranean. A railroad thirty miles
long was built connecting the Columbia
river with the center of the Walla Walla
valley, and every year brought to the
river increased harvests which found q
market through the mouth of the river.
Beginning in 1880, a railroad along the
Columbia, now part of the Union Pacific
system, supplanted the steamboats, and
laid into the lap of Portland the wealth of
an empire. The shipment of grain from
Portland to foreign ports has always borne
and still bears large unavoidable expense
on account of several bars in the Columbia
and Willamette rivers, which in
volve ighterage, the high cost OF
towage and pilotage. heavy insurance
occasioned by dangers at the ocean en-
trance and long delays. Despite the fact
that the government has spent large sums
in attempts to permanently establish a
deep channel from Portland TO the sea tthe
Columbia and Willamette rivers have
never in late years been sighted in the
river and harbor billsl the situation is this:
Vessels of twenty feet draught cannot at
a low stage of water reach Portland, and at
the lowest stage, seventeen feet is the max
imum to which ships may load. 1t hap
pens, too, that the lowest stages of water
come in September and October, time
when usually the bulk of the grain reaches
market.
In contrast with these difficulties of
navigation, il may be said without boast
that Puget sound is the best harbor in the
world. The entrance from Cape Flattery
to Port Townsend is fifteen miles wide
and never less than 100 fathoms deep.
Ships can sail in 10 safe anchorage The
largest vessels can stack" up with adverse
winds. The least depth of water between
the entrance and the head Of navigation is
thirty fathoms. Lighthouses and fog
signals have been established at every nee
essary point between Cape FlatEery and
Tacoma. Delays are extremely rare.
Waiting for tide or for daylight,
once vessel has her outward cargo, is al
most unknown. Towage is cheap because
there is active competition among score
Of hrst-ciass tug boats, and the cost OF
operating them is low on account Of the
abundance of cheap coal from mines near
Seattle. There is no charge for pilotage.
As no rocks or shoals exist, and as the
waters of Puget sound are two miles wide
In the narrowest place, the master of the
tug serves as pilot without cost to the ship.
For these reasons Puget sound is far
better and cheaper loading port
than the Columbia river Less than one
year ago the head Of the largest wheat