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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1887)
LIME, AND HOW IT IS PRODUCED. no gives the following proportion of ingre dients : Carbonate of lime .80.4 Silica :.. 3.1 Carbonate of magnesia 5.3 Oxide of iron 2.2 10O0 It lies at a distance of about three hundred miles from Portland, and close beside the track of the Oregon & Cali fornia railroad, by which the rock is transported to Portland It is of the variety known as crystAlized limestone, belonging to the same class as marble. It is really a veined and clouded mar ble, and although not adapted for the finer purposes of statuary, it makes a very excellent and durable stone for all building purposes, for which use the company has proposed it Some small, and at present unavaila ble, limestone deposits exist along the foot-hills of the Cascade and Coast ranges within the Willamette valley notably in Polk and Clackamas counties. They are of the variety knowu as shell lime stone, being composed almost exclusive ly of the fossil shells of innumerable marine animals. Shells produce, ordi- narily, a very good article of lime, when calcined, but the deposit are apt to con tain so much sand in tho spaces between the shells, that the resulting lime is too largely contaminated to be of uho. On the Cowlitz river, in Washington Terri tory, is another shell limestone deposit; and in other portions of the region along the Lower Columbia river and it tribu taries, there are many more, but uono of any present importance. Near Hunt ington, in Baker county, Oregon, there is a limestono deposit which would be very promising, were it not for tJ.e ex pense of nearly four hundred miles of railway carriage, which would Imj re quired to transport it to market Much of the stone is a very compact, hard and tough variety, with a pink tinge. It should be durable and valuable for arch itectural purj)oses. THE PUGET SOUND OF TQ-DAY. MY first visit to Puget Sound was made with the guests of the North ern Pacific railroad, during the celebration of its completion, in Septem ber, 1883. We spent an afternoon at Taooma, where we saw the product of the country, and at a banquet heard the country extolled, and then sailed for Se attle, whose illuminations shone across the bay as our steamer rounded Battery Point and approached the city. There we met with the same cordial reception, and on the following day saw huge blocks of coal and immense slabs of lumber, representing the staple products of the country, and listened to a further expo sition of its resource at a grand barl. cue and clam bake. In the evening I joined the editorial party, as it camo to the sound, and sat down to another mn. quet, which was designed, not merely to entertain and honor the representative of the pre, but to farnish them with information, which they all desired, con cerning M the pride of Washington Ter ritory." By such a visit to theo cities, bow. ever, under such favorable circumstanc es, I got only a feeble impression of the beauty of the sound, or it greatne, It was only by the excursion of the fol lowing three days, to different jrt of the sound, that I came sensibly to real ize the truth of Admiral Charles Wilke' statement, that M nothing can sarpftM the beauty of the -frs awl their safety,"
