The Daily Intelligencer

The Sound.

Taking one of the several steamers that ply between the Sound ports, a delightful voyage of 30 miles brings the travelers to the capital of King county. It is worthy of mention that the waters of Puget Sound are so pleasant to travel on-pleasanter than a river, and far more agreeable than the open sea. The shores, though covered with trees, are, however, lonely; but they furnish interesting resting places for the eyes. With good passenger boats and reasonable fares, the Sound ought to be the greatest pleasure ground in the world for tourists. Fares are very unequal in amount-being cheap in some directions and high in others. From Tacoma to Seattle your ticket costs but one dollar; but from Seattle down the Sound the rates are much higher.

SEATTLE

is a town on the eastern shore, of between four and five thousand inhabitants, built on the side of a hill 300 feet high. The bay on which it is located-Elliott's-is five and a half miles long and two and a half miles wide. The harbor is an excellent one, with water in it from 20 to 80 fathoms deep. A few blocks of land have been reclaimed along the city front by filling in with the sawdust from the mill there located. This portion of the town is covered with mills of various kinds, ironworks, factories, wharves and warehouses, and presents a peculiarly business aspect. There are few really handsome buildings in Seattle, either for business purposes or residences; but it has, nevertheless, an air of thrift, which comes from every possible corner being occupied. The Territorial University, on the brow of the hill, is the most pretentious public building, which is almost eclipsed by some of the more modern private dwellings. No court house has yet been built; though a county jail has, with offices in the upper story for county purposes.

At these offices some figures were obtained which show the condition of affairs for King county. The total cash value of lands and improvements, and town lots and improvements, is estimated at $1,540,287. Total cash value of personal property, $702,517, making a grand total of $2,243,803. The total population of the county is reckoned at less than 5,000. The county revenue is $45,000. Business of all kinds has been usually prosperous in Seattle, but this year it shares the almost universal stagnation. The two great products of the Sound, coal and lumber, have not found as ready market as formerly in California, and, consequently, the production of these articles has in a great measure been suspended, causing losses and failures, not in Seattle alone, but quite generally.

Seattle has seven churches. The number of school children is 1321. Graded common schools, and a preparatory and collegiate school, in the university building, under a corps of energetic and conscientious teachers, afford good opportunities for education. The pupils are intelligent and enterprising and the future of this city is destined to be a brilliant one, if it only succeeds in getting the much desired transmontane railroad. Money is being raised to continue the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad across the Cascades, to open up the Yakima country, and proceed eastward to Walla Walla. This enterprise competes, of course, with that of the Northern Pacific Cowlitz Pass project; but if either or both are successful, the greatest good will result to the whole Sound country. Heretofore several coal mines have been worked in the vicinity of Seattle. At present only one is in active operation. This one is the Newcastle mine, which has a branch railroad to the Seattle & Walla Walla railroad. By an elevated roadway it runs out the cars to load coal into vessels.

About 500 tons are brought down from the mine daily and the work of loading ships goes on night and day.

The country around Seattle that is good for farming purposes lies chiefly in the small valleys of the several short rivers emptying into the Sound in the vicinity. These are the Duwamish, White, Green, Stuck, Squak, Black, Snohomish, Snoqualmie and other streams. These valleys, together with the land bordering on lakes and some small islands, aggregate about 170,000 acres. Most of this is covered with brush or with heavy timber. In fact there is very little good land in western Washington that is open prairie. But the lumber contained in the large trees along any of these streams is valuable and can be brought to market. Maddocksville is a small town on White river, a good farming locality. Renton is a mining town on Cedar river. Telbot is another, one and a half miles distant. No business at either of these places at present. Newcastle is situated on the east side of Lake Washington, and is the most prosperous of all the mining towns. Milton, on the bay, is a milling point.--Mrs. Victor, in Resources of Oregon and Washington.