The west shore., February 01, 1885, Page 34, Image 4

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THE WEST SHORE.
34"
spot will lie on Ship Harbor, which is a short distance
Houth of Whatcom. The company estimate that 90 per
cent of their manufactured iron will be shipped to for
eign countries; hence a good hnrbor is one of the princi
pal objects for consideration. Mr. Torkelson thinks that
from .500,000 to XCOO.OOO will be invested in the new
enterprise.
Professor R. Fumpelly, who had charge of the exten
sive scientific explorations carriod on for some time by
the Northern Pacific in the region tributary to its road,
read a paper recently at Newport, R. I., at a meeting of
the National Academy of Sciences, on the subject of the
coal bods of tlie Northwest From this it appears that
the coals in Washington Territory, Northern Montana,
Idaho, Oregon and Dakota are all cretaceous, from the
top of the Laramie ! ormation down. 1 rom the Missouri
River west to the Rocky Mountains the coal Inyers are
thirteen to sixteen feet thick, but are liimitio and crumble
on exposure. West of that the layers are two to six feet
l'i I 1! - I T 1 1 f 11 -
miiuh, nut uni uiuiminouscoKing coais. in uuuiui Diisin,
nn to or past the British lino, are coking coals from
eighteen inches to five or bix foot thick. The next great
coal fields are nest of the Cascado Range. Hero the
thickness of tho carboniferous formation is at loast 13,000
feet. All the bituminous coal has boon studied, but not
yet tho lignite, which is loss valuable. Some of these
coals have lieen converted into natural coke, having the
same chemical composition as anthracite. The bitumin
ous coal is confined to strips along tho Cascade Range
and Vancouver Island Tho total amount of carlwuifor
ous material is very groat The coal fields of Wyoming
Aumuiry uave no roprosoniauve in ine nortu.
In constructing the Oregon Short Line across the
lava plains of Idaho, in Snake River Valley, it required
almost as many teams to haul food and water for the men
and animals as it did to do the grading. To supply these
long stretches of road with water after construction re
quired sovoral water trains. The company wisely at
tempted the experiment of sinking artesian wells. Eight
mum wiiiis nave provou successim, ana one other is yet
incomplete. The lava h, full of crevices and so porous
that water cannot rise in it, honce tubing is required all
the way dowu. This lava ranges in thickness from 150
to 250 feet, resting on soil, gravel lods and hard-pan.
A ater is struck after passing through the hard-pan, and
it rises in the tulw nlniut eighty feet leaving the pumps
to roiso it from that lovol to the tanks. The donths of
uiH wimnimed wens ore as toiiows: Wnpi, 'W loot; Min
i.lnko, 425; Kimami. 3'25; Owinzo, 400; Bliss, 438; Cloft,
4.)0; Uisuka. 380: Namoa. 155. The W lit flinnA wnlla
is four inches in diameter. It would seom that those
experiment have demonstrated the practicability of pro
curing water for irrigating purposes iu Southorn Idaho,
so that land not situated within easy roacli of a ditch
taken from some liatund reservoir or running stream
need not lie looked upon as utterly uncultivablo. A little
greater depth would probably roach water which would
. riso ulKive tlio surface, .
There is a largo area of good bituminous coal lying in
liatoom (Vmnty. W. T.. between the Nooks'iek River
and uike Whateom, a distance of seven miles. Some
7,0H)aorosof this laud have boon tiled upon as coal land.
It m uudersUxHl that capital fortlie development of these
mines has already been secured An extensive voin of
semi-bitununoUH coal has been reported as discovered
north of Skagit River and ou the proposed line of the
Bolliughani Bay Railway A Navigation Company. It is
now U-ing explored by tlie inmuy witli a view of ascer
taining iU exlrnt and value. Tim development of these
lulhos would bo of fcrcat benefit to Whatcom County.
The Skagit coal mines, which will also find a shipping
point at Bellingham Bay, are located on the south side
of Skagit River, twenty-lour miles from tide-water. Five
seams, varying from three to eight feet in -width, have
shafts and tunnels from ten to one hundred and seventy
five feet All these seams can be worked from one main
tunnel, which has now been driven thirty-five feet, and
which will give access to 10,000,000 tons of coal lying
above water level. The veins of iron ore, of which there
are five in the vicinity of these coal measures, vary in
thickness from eight to fifty feet Three of them are
embraced within the limits or the coal mines, and are all
susceptible of being worked from the 'end by tunnel
above water level, thus reducing the cost of mining to tlie
minimum. This is all brown hematite, and the amount
of it easily accessible is so enormous as to make an esti
mate valueless. There are, also, in that region large
lodges of marble, limestone, red cranite and black cranitA.
and large tracts of fire clay.
The region of the Upper Marias, Teton and Sun
rivers, in Northern Montana, is destined to become famous
as an agricultural country, and to support a farming
population of considerable numbers. The soil is adapted '
to the production of wheat and other cereals in the high
est degree, and only requires irrigation, and ample means
for this are at hand. Water is abundant and streams
ramify the country. Irrigating ditches that will supply
thousands upon thousands of acres can be easily con
structed A description of such an enterprise no n under
way will serve to show what can be done in numerous
localities. The Dupuyer Canal takes water from the
river of that name, about five miles above its confluence
with the Marias. The ditch is nine feet six inches on the
bottom and twelve feet six inches at the top, and will
carry 5,000 inches of water. Its length, so far as pro
moted, is some seven miles. After winding about the
hillside for a little more than two miles, it attains the top
of the bench, following a ridge from which the land
slopes gently on either side, and which can be readily
irrigated to an almost unlimited extent. This land is all
of an alluvial nature, the soil Iwi WCf 111 fiolr Oft ft a-nA Aanx
and entirely free from gravel. Better land for wheat
growing and general agriculture cannot be found, and it
cannot fail to become an important factor in adding to
the wealth and prosperity of Northern Montana. . As
now projected (and the work is almost completed) this
ditch will irrigate fifty sections of land of the character
described, showing it to be an enterprise of no small
magnitude. , It con be extended either to Schultz's Coulee
or the Dry Fork of the Marias, and its value as a "land
redeomnr lnnrnlv innranon,! Ti U.. -
Ml i ""e"v -"""'. xu ib uut uy ouy weans a
land grabbing scheme, as several sections of desirable
land remain open to entry, and it is desired that they
should be taken up by parties who will settle upon the
same and take niiviinturrn nt tim nn.mt,,;t;.. . :
llesidjs this ditch, there is nn important one on Birch
Crock completed; a large canal tapping the Teton, which
..... wi u iiumoimw strewn or Dencn land between
that stream and the Muddy; canals under construction
from tho North and South Fork of Sun River; all of
which will have an important bearing on the development
and progress of that portion of Montana, rendering it
aluiouim farthest north tint m.wt .,. i
, . -f oAwuiufc uuu promi
nent agricultural section of tlie Territory.
The strike that generally results i n rmrul tn oil
uea coucerutxl is that made bv the moth urn nn tlin Vw
of the boys' pants. Tin biy d m't like it any more than
wealthy corporations-, but it does hiin good in the end