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