THE WEST SHORE.
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Fort Benton and Sun River to work the Deep Creek
mines in "gW County. The mines ore situated near
the mouth of Deep Creek, or Smith River, and not far
from the site of the future city at the.Great Falls of the
Missouri. As an aid to building up a manufacturing
city at the falls these extensive coal deposits will be
invaluable.
An enterprise of great importance to the City of
Olympia has been announced. The discovery of vast
beds of a superior quality of coal in Hannaford Valley,
Washington Territory, has led to the formation of the
Eliot Coal Mining Company, for the purpose of develop,
ing the mines. A narrow gauge road loading from thera
a distance of ten miles, to connect with the 0. & C. V.
road at Tenino, has been surveyed aiid will be constructed
the coming summer. It is the purpose to make Olympia
the shipping point, and to that end coal bunkers will be
built there and the harbor facilities greatly improved
When this is accomplished other industries will naturally
Bpring up at Olympia.
In the shipyard of Hall Brothers, at Port Blakoley, a
large passenger and freight Bteamer is being constructed
for Foster A Co., of Honolulu. She is 107 feet long, 30
feet beam, 13 feet deep and G50 tons capacity, and is the
largest steamer built on Puget Sound. She will 1o
lighted by electricity and will possess all the modern
improvements for comfort and safety. She will have
twenty staterooms, with accommodations for 100 cabin
passengers and 250 in the steerage. It is expected to
launch the vessel in Julywhen she will be taken to San
Francisco to receive her machinery and inside fittings.
The hull is of wood, copper fastened, and the complete
vessel will cost $75,000. During the past ten years Hall
Brothers have built forty-four vessels.
There are unmistakable signs of increasing prosperity
visible in Victoria. New houses are going up in such
numbers as to render the city's progress quite noticeable.
Confidence in the great future before the city is strong
among her citizens. She will soon become the terminus
of the Island Railway, by which the celebrated coal of
Vancouver Island will be brought to the city for ship
ment and for the use of the many steamers that will seek
her harbor. She will prpbably become the actual sea
port terminus of the great Canadian Pacific and enjoy
the advantages of the immense commerce which will
inevitably enter the harbor, of that company. With her
beautiful location and superb climate, her business thrift
and enterprise, her great resources and commanding
location, Victoria must ever remain the metropolis of
British Columbia. ,
Very few people who build a house in which they
propose to live, and which, in consequence, they desire
to have as perfect and convenient as possible, are aware
of the fund of information to be gleaned from an able
architectural journal. From the columns of such a pajwr
they will learn much of which they were previously igno
rant and of which their architect has neglected or forgot
ten to inform them ideas that can easily be incorporated
in their plans. Even after the hru in hnty h"r r.rc
many things which tend to the health or convenience of
the household which can le learned in this way. It is a
paper such as every house owner should possess. Ono
of the bent conducted of this claHS of journals is the
California ArchiM and Jiuihling Xnn, published at
San Francisco, at 2 per annum. Tho valuo of such a
paper to architects and contractors is too well appreciated
to require comment.
The Port Blakoley Mill Company employs 450 men,
chiefly in the logging camps, 200 hoad of work oxen and
twenty mules. One of those camps puts 40,000 feet of
logs in the water daily. The company loadod just 100
vessols in 1883, with cargoes aggregating 49,189,785 foot
of lumlor. Twonty-oight vessols were loadod during tho
first four months of the current year. Thoro woro
shippod, also, 4,423 piles, C22 spars, 700,3(58,000 laths,
; 98,254 pickets and 200,700,000 shingles. The daily capa.
(city of the mill is 275.0(H) foot The largest day's work
was 283,000 foot in a run of eleven and ono-half hours.
The company owns two steamers and six sailing vessels,
and has a large store, with a stock of goods worth
925,000. A vessel is now being loaded witli 250 spars for
New York City. This is a good showing for a single
firm of the many engnged in lumbering on Pugot Sound.
Such an industry would be considered a great ono any
where in tho worlil
War has again boon doclarod by the fishermen of the
Coquillo River against the swarm of sea lions which
infest tho mouth of that stroam and prey ukii tho
salmon. A large pro)ortion of the fish rocoivod by tho
cannery men bear the marks of having barely escaped
the maws of these ravenous post, and this suggest tho
enormous quantity which must bo consumed by thorn,
since they are tho most cxjMirt of fishers. Last year
many sea lions woro killed, but there seems to be no
diminution in their numbers. It is now pro jm mod to
slaughter them in a systematic manner malo and female,
old and young. It is IiojmsI that tho destruction of a
thoiiHand of them will hnvo tho effect of causing tho
survivors to seek for more tranquil and pleasant fishing
grounds. If they are not successful in driving away this
amphibious opponent tho fishermen have great fears that
the salmon will seek somo stream where they aro less
liablo to persecution, and thus ruin the fishing industry
on the Coquillo.
The Pike's Peak Railway, which will lie in oMration
next year, will lie the most notable piece of track in the
world It will mount 2,000 feet higher than the Lima A
Oroya Railway, in Peru. It is now in oxratioii to a
point over 12,000 foot alxvo tho soa level The entire
thirty miles of its length will bo a succession of com
plicated curves and grades, with no piece of straight
track longer than 300 feel The maximum grade will I
310 feet to the mile, and the average grade 270 feel Tho
lino will abound in curve from 600 to 1,000 feet long, in
which the radius changes every chain.