sloops. ^Total: vessels, 149; tons, 55,606.25; crew, 2,105. Foreign 
vessels for foreign countries: 6 steamers, 16 ships, 6 barks, 3 sloops. 
Total: vessels, 31; tons, 19,227.42; crew, 456. American vessels coast¬ 
wise : 29 steamers, 11 ships, 18 barks, lbrig, 9 schooners. Total: ves¬ 
sels, 68; tons, 31,779.74; crew, 1,092. Total number of vessels cleared, 
248; tons, 106,613.41; crew, 3,653. 
Vessels Entered During the Year. —American vessels from foreign 
countries: 95 steamers, 1 ship, 10 barks, 1 brig, 18 schooners, 22 sloops. 
Total: vessels, 147; tons, 39,840.06; crew, 1,852. Foreign vessels from 
foreign countries: 6 steamers, 7 ships, 3 sloops. Total: vessels, 16; 
tons, 5,366.57; crew, 62. Americans vessels coastwise: 39 steamers, 
18 ships, 43 barks, 3 brigs, 6 schooners. Total: vessels, 109; tons, 55,- 
561.18; crew, 1,853. Total number of vessels entered, 272; tons, 100,- 
767.81; crews, 8,502. 
In the coasting trade belonging to other ports there are 1 ship, 12 
barks, 1 brig, 4 schooners. Total: vessels, 18; tons, 7,761.25. 
The value of shipments coastwise cannot be obtained from any other 
source than the mills from which the lumber is shipped, as the vessels 
do not clear from this port unless sailing under a register. The year’s 
shipments coastwise is estimated at three millions of dollars; being an 
increase over the preceding year of nearly three hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars. Imports coastwise cannot be ascertained, as the vessels are not 
obliged to report at the Custom House, except in certain cases. 
Shipbuilding has been inaugurated on Puget Sound. The 
dense forests of firs fringing our waters, the tall trees, the close 
grain, the bending elasticity, and the cheapness of the material, 
renders this valley the shipyard of the north Pacific coast. In 
1867, the board of marine underwriters of San Francisco insti¬ 
tuted an inquiry into the facilities for,* and the cost of shipbuild¬ 
ing on the northwest coast, as compared with eastern shipyards. 
The facts developed by these enquiries were, that vessels could 
be built of the timber found on that coast, all other finish being 
the same, at a less price than on the Atlantic seaboard or the 
British islands. The committee appointed reported that “ The 
growth of the business has also been hindered by grave doubts 
as to the strength and durability of our firs when used as ship 
timber. The predilections of all American and English ship¬ 
wrights are naturally for oak; but oak has been scarce, or rather 
the oak of this coast has generally been found worthless for 
these purposes, while only the laurel lias been found suitable as 
a substitute for it. Sufficient time has, however, elapsed to 
prove to us that we have several kinds of ship timber in the 
greatest abundance, and of a size and quality in every way 
better adapted for ship building than the timber used for many 
years back on the coast of Maine or the British Provinces. 
