98
THE WEST SHORE.
April, 1880
COMMERCIAL FACILITIES.
Our enemies, even, being judges, the
Commercial facilities of Oregon, and
the Territory of Washington, :ire sec
ond to none on the globe. Let any one
take a late map of the North Pacific
Coast, and note, carefully, the navigable
water courses, from Rogue river valley
to the Straits of Fuca, extending, as
some of them do, hundreds of miles
into the interior, and he cannot help
being forcibly struck by the truthful
ness of the above assertion.
To consider the subject negatively,
for a few moments, let the question be
asked, what would have been the con
dition of the great western interior of
Oregon, to-day, had there been no such
thing as the Willamette river, with its
hundreds of tributaries ramifying as
many smiling valleys and draining
thirty thousand square miles of rich and
productive territory ? What would
have been Eastern Oregon and Wash
ington, had not the Great Spirit, as
the Indians sny, broken up the ever
lasting masonry of the Cascades, and
opened a grand passage-way for I be
pent-up waters that now come down to
old ocean through the river bed of the
Columbia ? And what if the Strait of
Fuca. had only been an estuary or broad
arm of the sea, wholly devoid of that
magnificent extension known as Puget
Sound, and without which Western
Washington would, to-day, have been
an impenetrable and unexplored vyil
demess ? These, indeed, are leading
questions, and exhibit to us, in the
best possible light, the wholly unex
celled and almost uncipialed facilities
for commercial enterprise ami pros
perity possessed by the people of this
our Northwestern domain and frontier.
Many of the inconsiderable streams put
down as "rivers" on the map of Cali
fornia, Nevada, and several of the Ter
ritories, aie little better than so many
dry nVCrbcds during the greater part
of the summer months. Not so, how
ever, with the snow-fed stream-, that
empty fromeverj point of the compass
into the Columbia liver and Pugel
Sound. As if the Coast Range and
Cascade mountains were not enough
to supply our magnificent river systems,
the eternal glaciers of Jefferson, Hood,
Adams, St. Helens, Olympus, Rainier
and Biker, are destined to remain as
grand and Inexhaustible reserves while
(iod, in His providence, shall please t,.
prolong the sojournment of man upon
the globe.
" Take tho winjrs
Of morning and the Uarean desert pierce,
Or, lose thyself in the continuous woods
Whcro rolls tho Oregon, and hoars no sound,
Kru-p itu nU'M dftshlnjn,"
What the Columbia was seventy
years ago, when Bryant penned Thana
topsis, so is it, save in name, to-day.
The Philadelphia New Northwest may
persist in calling it the "grave-yard of
ships," other jealous parties, with more
zeal than truth or discretion, may apply
to it disreputable and libelous epithets,
but, with its ten thousand sources, it
will continue to drain its three hundred
thousand square miles of territory,, and
carry upon its bosom to the great patri
arch of oceans its infinitude of shipping,
bound to every seaport known to the
commerce of civilization. During the
twenty years that the lamented Captain
Francis Connor has commanded sea
going steamships plying between San
Francisco and Portland, his first Co
lumbia river casualty is yet to be
recorded. Favorable as this showlne
appears to be, hundreds of other ship
masters of various grades might boast
of a similarly prosperous career. So
much, then, for the largest and grand
est river that empties Irom the Western
Hemisphere into the Pacific ocean.
And now, what shall we say of
Puget Sound and its wonderlul rami
fications ? Argus had a hundred eyes,
and Brinreus a hundred arms, while
other mythological celebrities had a
plurality of beads, lint, unlike, and
superior to them all, this admirable
sheet of water may be said to be all
eyes and all arms, and with so many
heads projecting into the forest-fringed
land that our Government's Coast Sur
vey experts have been for years striving
to determine which one of its countless
inlets should be considered, far excel
cure, its ultimate and principal source.
Landlocked, and protected from oceanic
storms and currents, its is verily the
paradise of fine steamers, and the
smaller sailing craft so essential to the
best interests of our growing inland
Commerce, to say nothing of the man--nificent
forest and mountain scenery
within which, throughout i(s wJ,0le
extent, it is M) happily ensconced.
&Ut we trust that enough has been
said in this connection, to convince
business men and the commercial
wot Id generally, that this pari of the
Pacific Coast offers fair, if not superior
inducements to those capitalists, at the
East and elsewhere, who may be look
ing for desirable fields of enterprise.
In treating of this subject, it has
been our special aim to carefully avoid
all mooted questions of local character
and tendency. Provincial rivalries al
ways did, and, probably, always will,
exist in every land. It comes not
within the province of a journalist to
settle and reconcile these points, and
hence we have endeavored to confine
ourselves to candid and liberal views
in regard to the various phases of this
most interesting topic.
SOME INTERESTING COMPARISONS.
BY I.. P. VENEX.
In treating of the mammoth trees of
California (Sequoia Giga(ca), Mr.
Franklin 15. Hough, in his official re
port upon the Forestry of the United
States, wisely remarks: "These trees
have attracted widely the public in
terest, rather on account of their enor
mous dimensions than their commer
cial importance." Hence, it will be
seen, upon careful investigation, that
it is an egregious error for incoming
settlers from the Atlantic States to base
their estimates of California's timber
resources upon the wide-spread reputa
tion of the so-called mammoth trees.
The Sequoia Gigantca producing area
of that State consists, mainly, of a few
narrow and isolated belts along the
western slope of the Sierra Nevada
range, between about thirty-six and
thirty-eight degrees of latitude. Com
paring these trees with the fir, cedar
and spruce of this, our Northwestern
Coast, vc come in possession of some
curious and interesting results ; especi
ally interesting because they arc de
duced from actual calculation. It is a
fact well 'known among mill men and
lumber dealers, that, beyond a con
venient size, the girth of a tree tends
rather to its disadvantage than value
and profit. On the other hand, how
ever, long, straight and clear timber
will ever be held in great estimation by
producers, dealers and consumers.
As objects of curiosity and admiration
in the vegetable world, the big trees of
California are sufficiently grand and
glorious to merit all that has ever been
said and written about them, but let Ul
hear wfiat actual measurement and cal
culation have to say as to their practical