Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1877)
THE WEST SHORE. 24 whom he met on this strange vessel, were n " old man and a youth who told him they came from a town in New England, called Boston." Hut on the following day the ship's captain, named Nicholas Shaplcy, came on board, together with Seymour Gibbons, " a fine gentleman, and Major-Gencral of the largest colony in New England, oiled Massachusetts." With this little personage, Fonte af fected to have had a very agreeable visit; so much so, that ha thought he might Ignore the orders he had re ceived to seize any foreign vessels found sailing in the waters adjacent to the Strait of Anion, and look upon this one simply as a merchant trading fur skins, whose intentions might not be Impugned, So greatly was he im pressed with the courtesy and dignity o! the Bostonianii that he made them .ill magnificent presents on taking leave; after which, he returned the way ho came into the Pacific. Such were the stories published even ill London, as late as 170N, and believed in by some, .b dl'a century later. ll was this " River of the Kings " that Bodega was louking for while on iho northern coast. That he did not find it, lurprieed him more than it docs 11,. Hut that dream of the Spanish ad- imtril was like the chance savings of . the astrologer, and contained far more future prophecy then present truth. His descriptions of islands and inlets closely resemble the Gulf of Georgia, and his interview with the sociable and peaceable Huston trader foreshadowed events that followed on the Pacific Cuast, 111 the course of a hundred and fifty years. Hefurc the Viceroy could get ready another expedition, the English had .igain appeared in the Pacific, and by fthatf superior scientific and naval ap pointments, and greater expedition in publishing their exploits to the world, hid robbed the Spaniards of the glory of their surveys of three years before. To be continued. LUMRERINd ON PUQKT BOUND, W. T. BY OKO. 11. IIIMI... In this issue, the readers of Thi IV kit SltOUl are presented with a few illflstratloni of the faruoua lumbering region of Puget Sound. The Tacoma mill is selected, not that it is the largest, but because it is the neatest, and, per li.ips, owing to its excellent manage ment, and the use of many labor-saving machine! has attained the most profit able result from the force employed. The large engraving on this page ptcscntsa view ot Commciicciuciit Hay (Taroma). The wharves, covered with JumWr, the mill company's store on :the light, the tramways leading from dhe mill to the wharves, and the front portion of the mill, arc shown; also, Several ships loading, while one, with a full cargo fur Chili or Peru perhaps, spreads its while wings tu the early morning breeze and is starling on its long voyage. The engraving nt the top of this page silt, a bitter idea of the mill it -elf, wilh the large boom (ur raft) of logs lying in the water in' front, the bluff In the rear, dotted with the neat white houses of employees about the mill, surmounted nt its crest by scat tered giants of the forest whose gnarled .ml ioken tops give evidence of tl lelentless energy with which their nwre fuvored brethren have bejejQ Wit iid upon by the sturdy lumbermen. The Trirom.1 mill is said to lie one of the best single mills on the Sound The actual amount of lumlier turned out at this mill in a week, working 1 y hours per day, was 'ms I feet. The smallest day's cut was "7.000 feet, and the largest, 92,000 feet ; and the average, 8 1 ,564 feet. In length, the mill is something over 300 tt. by 00 to 73 u. m width, and is fitted up with the latest improved machinery and appliances for the most effective and economical use of time and labor. To drive the requisite machinery necessary to produce the enormous quantity of lumber per day above spoken of, requires three powerful engines. A gentleman who has had many years' experience in the pineries of Wis consin, and who has been engaged in making lumber for sev eral years on Puget Sound, recently informed the writer that it required almost double the power to produce the same re sult here that was obtained there. His explanation of this was, on account of the close texture of the fir timber, as com nnred with the pine, rendering it almost as hard to saw as oak. This is probably one of the reasons why Puget Sound fir is so desirable for ship building purposes. The largest mill on the Sound is the one located at Port Gamble this is, however, really two mills run by one com pany. They employ about 350 men, run nine engines with seventeen boilers, and cut about 240,000 feet per day. The mill at Port Madison has made a specialty of long timber, no. foot sticks being unite common. A number of planks have been sawed and shipped there ot mat lengtn, wmcn were seven inches thick, and of width sufficient to bring their contents up to two thousand feet. Logs have been sawed there which weighed twenty-five tons, and from which were made six thousand feet of lumber. Some years ago this 11 turned out a stick 100 feet long, squaring four feet at c end and eighteen inches at the other; also, a plank 60 feet long, five feet wide and six inches thick. .Mills are also located at New Tacoma, Seattle, Port Hlakcly, Frceport, Unlpntown, Seabeck, Port Discovery, Utsaladv, and Port Ludlow. Some idea of what these mills do in one year may be obtained from the fact that they each employ from 100 to j;o men, and that during the past year they shipped 40,300,000 feet of lumber, chielly to Peru, Chili, Australia, and Sandwich Islands. This does not include the San Fran cisco market. As these shipments are made in coasting ves sels, and their cargoes never entered at the custom house, it s difficult to obtain correct statistics of the amount of lumber they really carry away. A pretty fair idea may, however, be formed when 1 state that 60 vessels are employed in the Puget Sound and San Francisco lumber trade. With the details of sawing lumber almost every one is fa miliar, and as the process is about the same everywhere, it is not worth while to occupy space in giving a description of it. Hut the manner of getting the logs to the mill is not so well known, and of this I will give a brief, and perhaps imperfect, description. In the first place the site of the logging camp is selected at some point accessible to the waters of the Sound or some of its tributaries, whore a good body of timber is to be had, free from limbs and of uniform growth. It may be said here that the trees chosen are from four to six feet in di ameter, logs larger than six feet in diameter being too un- HANSON, ACKERSON & ClTSa wieldly to be conveniently handled, though occasionally much top trees are used. Then arrangements for living, and taking carcoflk tc ims necessary to be employed, must be made. To do this reqwej the construction of numerous huts and sheds, and the laying in of 1! large stock of provisions for man and beast, for at these camps be found from, twenty-five men and two or three teams, of three a) five yoke of oxen each, to 150 men and twenty teams. The it main in one location for several months, and get out all the siiiult timber within a radius of two to five miles from the camp. Abooi is now made of a number of tree trunks fastened end to cud tm chains, which in turn are secured to the shore on cither side of lb chute down whicli the logs descend from the bank, as shown on lb COMMENCEMENT BAY. SHIPS LOADING U'XM