The west shore., January 01, 1887, Page 41, Image 34

THE rUOET SOUND OF TO-DAY.
41
The settled tortious of the country ou
the sound bear somewhat the same rela
tion to iU waters that Venice does to
the Adriatic. Communication between
jwints is maintained wholly by water.
The Bound, with its bays, inlets and
rivers, forms the main highway of the
country, like the canals which penetrate
every part of Venice. There are nearly
one hundred steainbont plying regular
ly between different jorU on the sound
and stations on the rivers, liesides many
sloops and bnrges that are engaged more
or less constantly in local traflic. The
merchant down at New Dungine, on
the Straits of Fnca, keeps a sloop stead
ily employed in exchanging the farm
products of that remote settlement with
the Puget Mill Company, at Port llam
ble, for the goods which the farmers re
quire. It is a simple commerce that he
thus carries on, demanding the use of
very little money, but he has found it
profitable to himself, as it is indispens
able to the settlement Most of this lo
cal trade is controlled at Seattle, whose
central position makes it possible for
these little steamboats to make daily
trips to and from the city. This gives
Seattle its principal advantage over Ta
coraa. In its immediate vicinity Taco
ma has larger inland settlements to sup
port it, and much territory that is sus
ceptible of cultivation, which will fur
nish it with an increasing local traflic.
The principal bop region is adjacent
to Taooma ami Seattle, and this is des
tined to be greatly extended. The val
leys of the Puyallnp, the White and the
Snoqualmie rivers are admirably adapt
ed to this industry. During the past
season about twenty thousand bales have
been raised, and sold for an average
price of twenty cent a pound. It costs
about eight cents a pound to make the
crop, and as failure are unknown, the
business is profitable whenever the price
is as high as it has lieen the past year.
All the country that is susceptible of
cultivation produces a great abundance
of everything that is adapted to the cli
mate. On the tide lands, which are ex
tensive in some places, enormous crop
of wheat, hay and oats are raised, and
and potatoes and the hardy fruits grow
almost too luxuriantly. On the Skagit
river there are ten townships of this land
in one body, which is of inexhaustible
fertility, and so interpenetrated by nsv.
igable channels that its products can m
loaded conveniently uxn water trait
ports. There are ten navigable rier
entering the east side of the sound, w hicii
traverse large sections of agricultural
land.
One eculiarity of this region, as of
all the country lying between the Ca.
cade mountains and the Pacific ocean,
in Washington Territory and the statu
of Oregon, is that the atmosphere may
le said to bo fertile. Vegetation seems
to require but little more than a foot
hold in the soil, while the atmosphere
supplies the food necessary to its growth.
Around Pnget sound there is a luxuri
ance of vegetation which suggest the
flora of the carlionifcroua age. This I
caused by the humid atmosphere that
is lorne across the ocean with the cur
rent of that mighty river in the sea, a
thousand miles wide, which starts in the
tropica with a temperature of eighty dc
green, and, striking against the island of
IJorneo, is deflected northward and flows
at the rate of three mile an hour from
Japan to Alaska.
The moisture from this nested current
float inward and U precipitated in rain
upon the earth, making ible the tast
forest growth of this region. "TV
clouds drop fatnesa." The rainfall roU
them of the carbonic acid, which is one
of the principal elemenU of food for
plant, and is absorbed by the lve
and root. Gigantic ferns grow among
the great conifers, and other luxuriant