Part 3

+------------+------------------------------------- PORTS ON THE | APPROXIMATE| PACIFIC. | VALUES. | -------------------+------------+------------------------------------- Humboldt, Cal. | $ 165,000 | Wood, and Manufactures of. | | |{ 1,493,600 | Canned Salmon. Oregon, Oregon |{ 400,000 | Wheat and Flour. |{ 32,000 | Wood, and Manufactures of. | | |{ 830,000 | Wood, and Manufactures of. Puget Sound, W. T. |{ 240,000 | Wheat and Flour. |{ 160,000 | Animals. | | |{ 58,000 | Animals. San Diego, Cal. |{ 4,000 | Wood, and Manufactures of. |{ 1,800 | Machinery. | | |{27,226,000 | Wheat, Flour, and other Breadstuffs. |{ 1,211,000 | Manufactures of Iron and Steel. |{ 900,000 | Fish. |{ 745,000 | Ginseng. San Francisco, Cal.|{ 700,000 | Cotton Manufactures. |{ 650,000 | Wood, and Manufactures of. |{ 430,000 | Fruit. |{ 375,000 | Gunpowder, etc. |{ 358,000 | Medicines, etc. | | |{ 3,339,153 | Wheat. Willamette, Oregon |{ 704,000 | Flour and Breadstuffs. |{ 37,000 | Wood, and Manufactures of. | | Wilmington, Cal. |{ 211,928 | Wheat. |{ 33,600 | Honey. -------------------+------------+-------------------------------------

NOTE.--Humboldt, Oregon, San Diego, Willamette, and Wilmington have almost no exports except those included in this list. Puget Sound and San Francisco have a great variety of exports.

APPENDIX.

LIST OF EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC MERCHANDISE, YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1885. EXPORTED FROM THE SEVEN CUSTOMS DISTRICTS OF THE PACIFIC.

Agricultural Implements. Animals. Art Works. Bark, and Extract for Tanning. Billiard Tables, etc. Blacking. Bones, Hoofs, Horns, etc. Books, Maps, etc. Brass, and Manufactures of. Breadstuffs, Wheat, etc. Bricks. Broom-corn, Brooms and Brushes. Candles. Carriages, and parts of. Cars, passenger and freight. Casings for Sausages. Chemicals, Drugs, Dyes, and Medicines. Clocks and Watches. Coal. Coffee and Cocoa, ground or prepared, and Chocolate. Copper, and Manufactures of. Cotton, Manufactures of. Earthen, Stone, and China Ware. Eggs. Fancy Articles. Fertilizers. Fish. Flax, Hemp, Jute, and Manufactures of. Fruits. Furs and Fur-skins. Glass and Glassware. Glucose, or Grape-Sugar. Glue. Grease, and all Soap Stock. Gunpowder, and other Explosives. Hair, and Manufactures of. Hides, and Skins other than Furs. Hay. Honey. Hops. Ice. India-rubber and Gutta-percha, and Manufactures of. Ink. Instruments and Apparatus for Scientific purposes. Iron and Steel, and Manufactures of. Jewelry, and Manufactures of Gold and Silver. Lamps, etc. Lead, and Manufactures of. Leather, and Manufactures of. Lime and Cement. Malt Liquors. Marble and Stone, and Manufactures of. Matches. Musical Instruments. Naval Stores. Oakum. Oil-cake and Oil-cake Meal. Oils. Ore, Gold and Silver bearing. Paraffine and Paraffine Wax. Paints and Painters' Colors. Paper, and Manufactures of. Plated Ware. Provisions (comprising Meat and Dairy Products). Quicksilver. Rags. Rice. Salt. Seeds--Timothy, etc. Silk, and Manufactures of. Soap. Spermaceti and Spermaceti Wax. Spices, ground and prepared. Spirits, Whisky, etc. Spirits of Turpentine. Starch. Stationery, except Paper. Stereotype and Electrotype Plates. Straw and Palm-leaf, and Manufactures of. Sugar and Molasses. Tin, Manufactures of. Tobacco, and Manufactures of. Trunks, Valises, etc. Umbrellas, etc. Varnish. Vegetables. Vessels sold to foreigners. Vinegar. Wax (Bees'). Wine. Wood, and Manufactures of. Zinc (pigs, bars, plates, and sheets).

LIST OF IMPORTS OF MERCHANDISE, YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1885. IMPORTED INTO THE SEVEN CUSTOMS DISTRICTS OF THE PACIFIC.

Animals. Articles, the growth, produce or manufacture of the United States, returned. Art Works. Art Works, the production of American artists. Books, etc. Brass, and Manufactures of. Brushes. Buttons, some kinds of. Cement. Chemicals, Drugs and Dyes. Clays, etc. Clocks, and parts of. Coal, bituminous. Cocoa, Coffee. Confectionery. Copper, and Manufactures of. Corsets. Cotton, Manufactures of. Cotton, unmanufactured. Dairy Products. Diamonds, uncut. Earthen, Stone, and China Ware. Eggs. Fancy Articles. Farinaceous Substances, and preparations of. Fish, a few. Flax, Hemp, Jute, etc., and Manufactures of. Fruits and Nuts, some. Furs and Fur-skins, undressed. Furs, dressed, and Manufactures of. Glass and Glassware. Household and Personal Effects, Clothing, Tools, etc., of persons arriving from foreign countries. Hair, Hats and Bonnets, etc. India-rubber and Gutta-percha. Iron, Steel, and Manufactures of. Jewelry, Manufactures of Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones. Lead, and Manufactures of. Leather, and Manufactures of. Malt Liquors. Marble and Stone, Manufactures of. Meats, prepared, of all kinds, and Extracts, etc. Metals, some. Musical Instruments, and parts of. Oil, animal and vegetable. Opium, and other Medicines. Paints and Colors. Paper, and Manufactures of. Paper Stock, crude. Plaster-of-Paris, unground. Rice. Salt. Seeds. Silk, Manufactures of. Silk, unmanufactured. Soap. Some Breadstuffs. Spices, ground. Spices, unground. Spirits, Distilled and Spirituous. Sponges. Sugar and Molasses. Tea. Tin (bars, blocks, etc.). Tobacco, and Manufactures of. Vegetables, some, in natural state, in brine, preserved, etc. Wines. Wood, and Manufactures of. Wood, unmanufactured. Wools, Hair of the Alpaca goat, etc., and Manufactures of. Zinc, Spelter or Tutenegue, and Manufactures of.

APPROXIMATE POPULATION IN THE YEAR 1887 OF

The World 1,500,000,000 Japan, Siberia, Chinese Empire, Anam, Siam, Oceanica, India 792,500,000 Mexico, Central America 11,800,000 U. S. of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Patagonia 11,700,000 Canada 4,500,000 ----------- TOTAL 820,000,000

TOPOGRAPHY OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

Washington Territory will make one of the largest States of the Union. It is larger than England and Wales combined, as will be seen by the following table:

Washington Territory 66,880 square miles. New York 47,620 " " Virginia 40,125 " " England and Wales 58,320 " "

The shape of the Territory is regular, having the general form of a parallelogram, with its longer axis running east and west. Its relief is simple. Along the Pacific coast runs the Coast Range of mountains from the mouth of the Columbia River to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. In this range there is only one practicable opening from the interior, which is the trough of the Chehalis River, which terminates in Gray's Harbor. The bar here, as at the mouth of Columbia River, forms a serious obstruction to the entrance of vessels drawing more than twenty feet of water.

Sixty miles east of the Coast Range, and parallel to it, runs the Cascade Range, which divides the Territory by a north and south line. It is a lofty range, presenting a serrated outline, whose lower depressions are 3,000 to 4,000 feet above tide, while summits of 5,000 to 8,000 feet are common; and at intervals still higher peaks raise their snow-covered heads from 8,000 to 14,500 feet.

Between the Cascade Mountains and the Coast Range lies Puget Sound, with its outlet through the Strait of Fuca. South of this sound, and on each side, are wide spaces of flat and rolling country, with numerous and somewhat disconnected mountains of comparatively small size, though some of them rise as high as 1,500 feet. These mountains show many natural terraces, which may be the result of land-slides.

[Sidenote: Puget Sound.]

[Sidenote: Lake Washington.]

The Puget Sound basin is exceedingly well supplied with streams and lakes; whilst the Sound itself, with its sheltered position, its deep water, and indented shore-line, is one of the most interesting and valuable inland bodies of water in the world. It has a broad outlet to the ocean. Lake Washington is a beautiful and navigable sheet of water. There are numerous other lakes scattered over the Territory, enlivening its scenery and often affording convenient waterways. Quite a number of the rivers emptying into Puget Sound are partially navigable for small steamers. The rivers and creeks generally have bottom-lands, which are sometimes narrow, and sometimes wide. Cowlitz River flows south into the Columbia River. It has fine bottom-lands, and its valley may be regarded as a prolongation and complement of the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

[Sidenote: West Washington and East Washington.]

All the country lying west of the crest-line of the Cascade Mountains is known as West Washington, and is quite different in topography, as in many other respects, from the country known as East Washington, which name applies to all of the Territory lying east of the Cascade axis.

East Washington is a rectangular plateau, set in a frame of mountains, and drained by the Columbia River and its tributaries. The Cascade Range being the west side of the frame, the north side is formed by irregular spurs which run out at right angles from the Cascade Mountains along the Canada border, and connect with the Cabinet Mountains. The east side of the frame is in Idaho, and consists chiefly of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. On the south lie the Blue Mountains, which are partly in Washington Territory, but chiefly in Oregon. The mountains on the north have a few peaks 5,000 to 9,000 feet high, and many of the dividing ridges are high, steep and rugged. Much of the region is described, however, as high plateau country, dotted over with small, conical mountains. It abounds in streams of water, generally small. A strip of arable land runs on the east side of the Columbia River from the mouth of the Spokane River to the mouth of the Colville River and the valleys of Colville and the Little Spokane River are highly spoken of as agricultural regions. The elevation of these river valleys is from 1,200 to 1,600 feet above tide-water.

[Sidenote: Coeur d'Alene Mountains.]

Passing to the east side, we find the plateau country at its north corner extending to the Idaho line where the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains begin, and soon rise into the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, which--being the local name for part of the Bitter Root Range--is a part of the western branch of the Rocky Mountains. The Coeur d'Alene River and Lake belong to the Columbia River basin, and are so naturally connected in mining and trading interests with Washington Territory, that in another connection I shall have much to say of the Coeur d'Alene country, as also of the Colville country, and other parts of the mountain rim. South of the Coeur d'Alene Lake the plateau country extends far into Idaho, and gives to that State its best farming lands.

The Blue Mountains which mark the southern limit of the plateau in Washington Territory do not extend more than half-way across the plain, leaving a long projection of the plateau to extend southward into Oregon.

[Sidenote: The Great Plateau.]

[Sidenote: Coulées.]

The shape of the plateau in Washington Territory is an irregular square with a diameter each way of about 150 miles. Followed into Idaho and Oregon, the diameters would reach 200 miles. Its surface is generally smooth, but there are frequent patches of rock, and sometimes large areas are roughened by rocky outcrops. The plateau is elevated and rolling, rising from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above the surface of Columbia River. Its elevations usually are mere swells, except along the precipitous edges of coulées. I know of only one mountain upon it, and that is quite a small one; but it served as a refuge for Lieutenant Steptoe and his handful of soldiers when attacked by the Indians; and hence is called Steptoe Butte. The surface of the plain is scarred in a number of places with coulées, or dry river-beds, which are cut down twenty to one hundred feet, and sometimes more, and their sides are usually marked by bluffs, often of rock. These coulées are an advantage, or a disadvantage, in road-making, according to whether the road goes with, or across, the coulée. The Northern Pacific Railroad found it convenient to use one of them for a long distance. The deepest cuts in the plateau are made by its rivers. Of these the Columbia is chief. This river, as already intimated, has cut a channel for itself along the north and west edge of the plain from 1,000 to 2,000 feet below the general level. The Snake River, which is the largest affluent of the Columbia, has numerous branches, all cut deep into the basalt which underlies the plain.

[Sidenote: Columbia and Snake Rivers.]

The Columbia and Snake are both steamboat rivers, but navigation is interrupted by rocky rapids, which prevent through lines of steamers. The Columbia is one of the largest rivers in the world, and has abundant water for steamboats from its mouth to a point in Canada, north of Farwell, where it is crossed by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and steamboats run at intervals to the most northerly point; and there are navigable stretches not yet used for boats which will have steamers in connection with future railroads. The steamers on Snake River are very useful, and run to Lewiston, in Idaho, and perhaps further.

This plateau, or Great Plain of the Columbia, as it is called sometimes, is a most interesting and important region, concerning which I shall have much to say under subsequent heads.

ALTITUDES IN WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

FEET. Mount Ranier (Tacoma) 14,444 Mount Baker 10,827 Mount Adams 9,570 Mount St. Helens 9,750 Natchess Pass 4,900 Stampede Pass, Summit 3,980 Tunnel, Stampede Pass 2,885 Snoqualmie Pass 3,110 Kechelus Lake 2,388 Kachess Lake 2,158 Ellensburg 1,518 Yakima City 990 Ainsworth 351 Palouse Junction 858 Sprague 1,200 Spokane Falls 1,910 Colville 1,917 Fort Spokane 1,300 Okinagane Lake 1,163 Great Plain of Columbia River 1,000 to 3,000 Snake River, N. P. R. R. 358 Colfax 1,941 Dayton 1,360 Walla Walla 1,000 Wallula Junction 326

CLIMATE.

[Sidenote: The Climate of Washington Territory.]

Climate is a matter of temperature, moisture and atmospheric dynamics. The general law of temperature is that the farther north the colder the weather; and yet currents of water and prevailing winds may give to the country a climate geographically belonging to quite a different latitude. We know how this is with England, which, judged by latitude, ought to be colder than Maine, but which, in fact, has one of the mildest and most equable climates in the world. England is farther north than Washington Territory, which latter is in the latitude of France; but it is also in the latitude of Montana, Dakota and Maine, States remarkable for sudden changes and for terrible cold. But it is well known that our Pacific States, at least on their western borders, have a temperature free from extremes in both summer and winter. Taking July and January as the hottest and coldest months, it will be found that the average temperature at San Francisco and Puget Sound is from 7° to 14° cooler than it is in the Rocky Mountains and in New England during the same months. And on the other hand, taking January as the coldest month, we find that Bismarck, Denver, New England, etc., are 30° to 40° colder than the points on the Pacific. In other words, that the range of the thermometer between extremes averages near 50° more in the East than it does in the West in the localities named; a very great difference when we consider comfort, health, cost of living, and opportunity to labor in the open air.

[Sidenote: Mild and equable.]

This greater mildness and equability of temperature on the Pacific Coast is to be ascribed to the winds and currents of the great ocean. During the summer the winds come from the northwest, and during the winter from the southwest and south. Much influence in tempering the cold of winter is ascribed also to the Japan Current, mentioned under a former head. It does for the Pacific Coast what the Gulf Stream does for England.

The same causes regulate also the rainfall on the Pacific Coast. In one respect there is the same peculiarity along the whole coast, namely, dry summers and, comparatively, wet winters. There is, however, a gradual increase in the amount of rainfall northward from San Diego to Sitka; so that when we reach Washington Territory we do not find the excessive dryness which characterizes the summer climate of California.

[Sidenote: Rainfall.]

The figures of different authorities do not agree exactly as to the precipitation on the Pacific Coast: for example, in the older volume on Rain Tables, published by the Smithsonian Institution, the annual rainfall and melted snow on Puget Sound, measured at Steilacoom, near Olympia, from 1849 to 1867, amounted to 43.98 inches. Governor Semple, however, gives from Sergeant McGovern, in charge of the station, a total of 53.89 inches annually, measured at Olympia from 1878 to 1886. But I find in the report of the chief signal officer to the War Department for 1884, that the average from July 1, 1877, to December, 1883, for Olympia, was 62.81 inches. This difference of nine inches is partly accounted for by the fact that the precipitation in the subsequent years not included in the report of the Signal Service Bureau, namely, 1884, 1885 and 1886, averaged only 41.88 inches, which would, in great measure, relieve the discrepancy. It will probably turn out on further observation that 53 inches is about the total annual rainfall for Puget Sound. But according to the report of the chief signal officer for 1884, we have the following annual totals: San Diego, 9.40; San Francisco, 23.32; Portland, Oregon, 54.16; Puget Sound, 62.81; Sitka, Alaska, 97.28 inches.

Comparing these with points farther east, we have Bismarck, Dakota, 21.35; Denver, 14.97; Sandusky, Ohio, 41.43; New Haven, Connecticut, 51.55; Norfolk, Virginia, 52.14 inches.

The value of rainfall depends more on its distribution among the months than on its annual aggregate. England has but 25 inches rain per annum, but it comes at such times as makes it most effective. The rains on the Pacific Coast are not distributed in the most favorable way for agriculture--the summers being too dry. At San Diego there is less than one-third of an inch in the three summer months, and still less at San Francisco. On Puget Sound, for that time, the fall is 2.57. In Washington Territory the spring rains are as abundant as in the Atlantic States, and the summer breezes seem laden with moisture.

[Sidenote: No blizzards or cyclones.]

[Sidenote: Differences between East and West Washington.]

In respect to cold waves, winds and storms, Washington Territory is singularly favored. There is nothing to correspond with the blizzards, northers, hurricanes and cyclones which trouble some other States. Even ordinary thunder-storms are rare. The climate of East Washington is different from that of West Washington, and yet, when compared with that of Montana and Dakota, it will be seen that it is really transitional and intermediate between the climates on each side. The range of thermometer from the heat of July to the cold of January is, at Bismarck, 65°; at Spokane Falls, 45°, and on Puget Sound, 22°. And, in like manner, the amount of rain is intermediate between the heavy rainfall of the Sound and the lighter rains of the Rocky Mountain country. The explanation of this is, that while the Cascade Range, like all high mountains, condenses the moisture of the air on the windward side and changes its temperature, yet this range is not sufficiently high and cold to have the effect of the Himalayas or the Andes in depriving the leeward lands of rain.

The mountain rim of the plateau country has not the moisture which distinguishes the west side of the Cascade, and it varies in its amount at different places.

Some statements have already been made in reference to the dryness and summer heat of the Yakima Valley on the east flank of the main mountain. The mountains running along the Canada line have probably a better summer climate than the east side of the main mountain. I do not know how it is with the Coeur d'Alene and Blue Mountains, but the climate of the plateau has no unusual character in the matter of temperature. Half of the States of the Union have as great or greater extremes; but the plateau has less than half the precipitation of Puget Sound, as shown in the tables given on pages 56 and 57. And the rainfall in the summer is so scant that one would not, _a priori_, expect any form of vegetation to progress at all. These meteorological phenomena render almost unaccountable the facts of agriculture, which will be given hereafter.

[Sidenote: Chinook wind.]

The Chinook wind, which springs up in winter and melts the snow on the plateau, and to some extent in the mountains, is simply a southerly wind, such as is common in the Mississippi Valley and even on the Atlantic seaboard. In the Pacific States it does not, from the descriptions, appear to differ from the breezes of the coast, except in its greater strength and steadiness. I heard an intelligent gentleman, residing in Spokane Falls, say that he thought the Chinook was a disadvantage in winter, as it caused a disagreeable thaw, and so relaxed the human system as to render it more sensitive to cold; but generally the Chinook is enjoyed in East Washington.

SOILS.

[Sidenote: Soils all fertile.]

The arable soils of Washington Territory, so far as I could see, or otherwise learn, may be classified as follows, to wit: _a._ Humus; _b._ Alluvium; _c._ Drift; _d._ Loam; _e._ Basalt.

_a._ HUMUS. In West Washington the whole country is top-dressed with vegetable mould, derived obviously from the heavy growth which has covered the surface for ages. Of course there are bare spots, and where the growth has been light, the top-dressing is thin; but the mountain sides, the hills, and notably the low grounds, are overlaid from one to ten inches, and often much more, with this vegetable mould.

TABLE SHOWING THE MEANS OF THE DAILY MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES IN DEGREES FAHRENHEIT.