136
THE WEST SHORE.
My, 188a
THE MEDITERRANEAN OF THE WEST
Puget Sound, Washington Territory,
perhaps the least known in the east of
all our important water surfaces, is the
one for which its acquaintances claim
the largest future fame. It covers an
area of 1,000 square miles, with a
breadth rarely exceeding ten miles, and
ha a coast line of 1,500 miles. Its
shores are bold and its waters deep, and
it is free from shoals and reefs. The
large number of vessels which frequent
the Sound are bothered to find good
anchorage, scarcely less than a hundred
fathoms of water appearing anywhere.
So deep are the clear waters of this
Mediterranean of the west, says a re
cent visitor, that a commodore of the
U. S. navy once innocently almost
ruined the chances of one of the Puget
Sound towns for being the final terminus
of the Northern Pacific railroad, by
taking his ship up to the town. On
sounding -the water for anchorage
ground, he failed to find as little as
thirty fathoms anywhere, excepting one
place, and that so near the bank that
there was danger of the ship going
shore when swinging with the tide. He
had to depart and anchor at the one
other place where there is a large natural
bay, affording excellent advantages of
me ainu ne was seeking.
The pure waters of this great sound
iwarm with fish. There arc eighty-five
varieties, it is said. The salmon is the
prince offish here. The catch of sal
mon sometimes amounts to 40,000,000
pounds a year. A species of cod is also
very abundant. It is dried and salted
in large quantities.
The principal industry of the Sound
lumbering. The timber comprise,
h, dogwood, alder, white oak, maple,
Cottonwood, spruce, hemlock and laurel
mong other varieties; but these are
limited in quantities. The greater part
of the. t,mber i. yellow fir and cedar.
Thiavast fir forest is thought to be the
finest tract of valuable timber land on
the face of ,he earth. It covers an area
or ji 1,000 square miles, according to the
rough estimate, that are current i the
territory. It U accessible from every
point 00 the Sound,. nd from the ocean
coast or . m, diMance The
tor. of the logging camp, fell their fir,,
tree, to close to the shore that they could
be made to fall directly into the Wa r
The yellow fir U f n
So to 300 (cct high, the trunks being
from 5 to 12 feet in diameter at man's
hight from the ground. The first lum
bermen cut only the five and six feet
trees. The saw-mills could not handle
logs which were larger than that. Even
yet there is no saw-mill on Puget Sound
which can saw a log which is more than
eight feet in diameter. The conse-
miKtirA Vims hppn that at first, fnr manv
" " 1
years, the ax men men left the small
j i 1 3
trees ana ine very large ones; ana a
piece of timber land which has been
cut over once, presents the singular
phenomenon of a collection of small
and of gigantic trees with none of
medium size among them. Since the
enlargement of the mills, some camps
are sending their men over the ground
in time to fell the big timber. The
firs are cut off about five or six feet from
the ground. The butts are generally
unsound.
It requires from half an hour to an
hour to fell a good sized tree. A large
number of fir tree trunks are unsound.
The principal defect is what is called a
" shake." It is a small crack inside the
tree, formed by the swaying of the tall
tree in the wind. When such a crack
forms it soon becomes filled with the
turpentine-like balsam which is rhar.
, acteristic of the fir. The wood-chopper
i woric on a Dig tree is frequently
astonished by driving his ax through
one of these fissures and seeing several
gallons of turpentine suddenly run out.
If the tree, when felled, is found to be
defective, it is left where it lies. If
souud,it is cut up into logs from 30 to
120 feet in length and hauled out of the
woods. Sticks 1 e
-j v6 nave oeen
hauled out.
The United States
jealous of this vast tract of valuable
"nr. " Permit" the timber to
fall only mto the hands of those who
W, t0 I? legitimate busine in
logging. The regulations are qulte
strict both . to keeping the land"
of the hand, of speculators, and as to
'he waste of timber. To buy a sou.--t-
of timber land it costs , '
efrlbMt,i'S
of eight oxen. He builds a
'ough camp and boards the men Hit
nd he is ab e to eet ant r .v Y'
't Md he l th J """"Ma
The yellow fir is known in the east
as Oregon pine or Puget Sound pine.
It is a wood of great value, owing to
its toughness and strength. The first
cargoes of it were sent to San Francisco
about twenty-five years ago. The length
and beauty of the timber attracted the
attention of Admiral Farragut, who
caused tests of it to be made at the
Mare Island navy yard. Still other tests
were made at the navy yard in 1870 by
constructor Much, for the purpose of
discovering the sizes of scantling re
quired for building the United States
screw-steamer Manzanita with Pacific
coast woods instead of white oak. Tests
have also been made recently in the"
oak. It is proved that yellow fir is
fully the equal of eastern white oak in
tenacity, strength and toughness. There
is no doubt left upon the point, and yel. ;
low fir is now the universal building
wood on the Pacific coast. ;
Mr. Paul Schultze, manager of the
Bureau of Immigration, has issued a
circular calling on farmers, producers
and millers, to assist in securing a selec
tion of specimens of grain in the sheaf
and in the berry, native and cultivated
grasses, and of all sorts of fruits and
vegetables. These may be delivered to
any agent of the Oregon Railway and
Navigation Co., the Northern Pacific
R. R. Co., or the Oregon and Cali
fornia R. R. Co. . They will be sent
free of charge to the sender if addressed
to " Bureau of Immigration, Portland,'
Oregon." All specimens will be prompt
ly acknowledged on receipt; They
should be marked with the name of the
sender, the yield per acre, when sown
and when harvested, with such other
particulars as will enable the "Bureau"
to answer all questions concerning them.'
It is hoped our friends will actively en
gage in the work of furnishing the
specimens requested. Nothing has a
more convincing force upon the new
comer or those seeking homes among
us, than the sight of specimens of our
varied products. -
The Prospect. Should the Euro
pean powers become thoroughly and
actually interested in the never-to-be-settled
" Eastern Question," now re
opened, the increased European demand
for American wheat and corn would be
very great, and it is refreshing to know
that the demand can be supplied by the
nu oiaces irpm its surplus.