780 



WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



The Olympia and Chehalis Valley Railroad, 

 narrow gauge, about fifteen miles in length, 

 connects Olympia on Puget Sound with the 

 Northern Pacific Railroad at Ten in o. 



Counting the newly constructed road and 

 that nearly completed, there are now in all 866 

 miles of railroad in the Territory, of which 

 804 miles are operated. 



Navigation. There are 92 steam-vessels, rang- 

 ing in size from the 5-ton propeller to the 

 steamer of 1,100 tons, now registered at the 

 office of the collection district of Puget Sound, 

 all of which are employed in the domestic 

 freight and passenger traffic of Puget Sound 

 alone. There were 169 vessels, aggregating 

 47,657 tons, documented at Port Townsend for 

 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885. Of this 

 number, 89 were sailing-vessels and 80 were 

 steam - vessels. There were 14 new vessels 

 built during the year ending June 30, 1885, of 

 which 8 were steam - vessels, amounting to 

 675-27 tons, and 6 were sail-vessels amounting 

 to 967-02 tons; making a total of 1,642-29 

 tons. 



Coal. So far, the important coal-fields have 

 been found in western Washington, and these 

 chiefly in and near the Puget Sound basin. 

 The first discovered were the coal-mines of 

 Bellingham Bay, near the north boundary of 

 the Territory. These were profitably worked 

 for many years, and until other coals of a bet- 

 ter quality were found. South of Olympia, in 

 the valley of the Skookum Chuck and the Che- 

 halis, is another field. East of Seattle and of 

 Lake Washington are what are known as the 

 Seattle mines, which have been more thor- 

 oughly and extensively worked than any others. 

 These veins run eastward into the Issaqua val- 

 ley, and probably still farther. 



The Renton and Talbot coals, about six miles 

 south of the Seattle mines, may be considered 

 as a part of the Lake Washington coal-field. 

 The Renton Company is working the Talbot 

 coaUvein, from which they obtained an ex- 

 cellent article of lignite or brown coal. All 

 the coals mentioned thus far belong to this 

 class. 



Next in importance to these are the Puyal- 

 lup coal-fields, spreading in various directions 

 along Carbon river up the South Fork of the 

 Puyallup, on Flett Creek and South Prairie 

 Creek. The veins of coal seem to be quite nu- 

 merous, and differ widely in character; most 

 of them are bituminous ; a few semi-bitumi- 

 nous, or between lignite and bituminous. 



The coals of this region, where the veins are 

 clean, are superior in quality to the coals pre- 

 viously mentioned. 



^ There are three distinct collieries in this re- 

 gion : one at Wilkeson, on Flett Creek, the sec- 

 ond at Carbonado, on Carbon river, and the 

 third on South Prairie Creek. 



The production of the Carbon Hill mines has 

 reached 1,000 tons per day, and these may per- 

 haps be considered the largest of the mines now 

 worked, although the difference of output be- 



tween them and the Seattle or New Castle 

 mine is not very great. 



The latest discovered and probably the most 

 valuable coal-field is that known as the Cedar 

 or Green river. This lies to the east and south 

 of Lake Washington, and is doubtless a con- 

 tinuance, in some measure at least, of the most 

 easterly veins found on the Puyallup. The 

 coals are bituminous. 



A few miles from Renton, on Cedar river, 

 is the MacAllister vein or mine, on which work 

 has recently been commenced, and it gives 

 promise of being an excellent coal. It seems 

 to be rather intermediate between lignite and 

 bituminous in its quality. 



The coal discoveries on the Skagit river, 

 not extensive as yet, form a link in the chain 

 that reaches from Bellingham Bay on the north 

 to Chehalis valley on the south. 



The total shipment for the Territory for the 

 year ending June 30, 1885, is 380,250 tons. 

 Adding the home consumption to this, the to- 

 tal mine output will be about 410,000 tons. 



Indians. In the Territory are six full agen- 

 cies, comprising sixteen reservations, besides 

 Moses' Reservation, which is in charge of a 

 special Indian agent. The total Indian popu- 

 lation last year was about 11,000. Of this 

 number probably not more than three fifths 

 live on the reservations, while the remaining 

 two fifths either roam about or have homes of 

 their own on homesteads or land purchased by 

 them, or in villages near white settlements. 

 The whole amount of land reported as being 

 included in all these reservations is 6,330,125 

 acres. 



Education. The following is a condensed re- 

 port of statistics of public schools for the year 

 ending June 30, 1885 : 



Raised for school purposes 4273,962 86 



Paid for teachers' wages 194,787 29 



Paid for rent of school-rooms 1,07785 



Paid for repair of school-houses 11,114 70 



Paid for school furniture 11,318 09 



Paid for fuel, etc 21,513 50 



Paid for school-house sites 2,562 73 



Paid for buildings 85,889 65 



Total for school purposes 287,02988 



School funds to credit of Territory at close of year 70,028 40 



Children enrolled in public schools. . , 

 Children enrolled in private schools. 

 Children not attending school 



26.497 



.'...'.'. S/J23 



Total 37,256 



There are twenty-four private institutions 

 of learning, consisting of colleges, seminaries, 

 academies, and other institutions of a higher 

 order, at which are in attendance 1,416 pupils 

 under the instruction of ninety-one professors 

 and teachers. The Territorial University is at 

 Seattle. Departments of law and medicine 

 have been recently added to it. 



Newspapers. There are fifty-three newspa- 

 pers published in the Territory, of which nine 

 are dailies. 



Banks. There are fifteen national banks; 

 aggregate capital, $1,020,000. 



Chinese. In the fall, demonstrations were 

 made against the Chinese, with a view to driv- 



