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Show 20 WASHINGTON TERRITORY, ITS MATERIAL any other whaling port. Third, means of re-shipment to San Francisco, New-York, and Europe, are always at hand, and freight can always be carried at lower figures on cheap lumber ships, than on expesive whalemen. Fourth, the grand reason why Puget Sound is better adapted to be a whaling port than any other point on the Pacific, is that whalers need be but fifteen or twenty days from port to cruising ground. In fact, the moment you go beyond Cape Flattery, you are in whaling ground, which continues at some seasons up the coast to the Polar Sea,and schools are frequently met while crossing over the Ochotsh sea. Ten out of the twelve months in the year may be spel).t on the cruis· ing ground, when ~ailing from some accessible or convenient harbor, say from Port Ludlow or Seattle. Owing to the readiness with which the products of the sea hog chase are gotten into port, and the almost constant continuation of the cruise, the interest on the investment, for the nine months usually spent in going to and returning from. the field of successful labor is gained, instead of paying interest on fifty thousand dollars for eighteen months, and paying a full crew of men, wages, while they idle, so far as relates to procuring of a cargo, or the increasl of cash assets, while the pay and interest go on, business also is prospering. Very material difference, this. Many other reasons might be assigned for considering Puget Sound a natural whaling port, but from the statements already made, those acquainted with the whaling trade can fill up the deficiencies. CHAPTER XIV. GRAZING LANDS. Throughout the entire Territory, there are extensive grazing fields. That portion of the country that is densely wooded, at the same time affords good pasturage, though not so great an amount of it as does the open lands east of the mountains. Our farmers, as a rule, turn their stock into the commons, and provide neither food nor shelter for them. When beef is wanted, they , go into the wood and shoot one down, be it June or February. A limited number of cattle can be kept at all times fat, in the timbered lands next to the Cascades, without care. But there is an open grazing district on the east slope of the mountain, and in the valley of the upper Columbia within our Territorial limits, of twenty million acres, and a like amount in Idaho, just across RESOURCES AND CLAIMS TO EMIGRATION. 21 the line, within nearly as great an extent nerth tof the forty-ninth parallel. Very few cattle are now raised in all this vast region, but the moment a good road is opened across the mountains to Puget Sound, men will come a thousand miles with. bellowing herds, and drive them immediately to the Sound, where will be packing houses equal to those of New-York or Chicago, and where the curing of can be as readily effected as in any other ·country. What a field of business this will open up to our young men, and the country. Cattle can be grown and made fat at a remarkably low figure, for the grass is spontaneous, and it does not require the value of the animal to keep it through the winter. The valleys west of the mountains, will produce an immense amount of hay, when the stock driven from the valleys, can be cheaply and well maintained or fed until they are slaughtered. Men familiar with this department of trade, can put these facts together, and make their own deductions, for I have not the means at hand of estimating correctly the results of the business, more than to say they will be extensive and benefi,cial. ' CHAPTER XV. MANUFACTURING. In order to satisfy one, that we will at no distant day be a manufacturing community, it is only necessary to enumerate the advantages we possess in that direction. First, we have great natural water powers, and those that are easily controlled. Second, we have an abundant supply of fuel, both wood and coal. Third, we can produce a considerable amount of the raw material for manufacturing. :Fourth, we ·have ready snipping, and market for all articles we can produce. Many other reasons exist, why we ought, and why we will be a manufacturing people, but want of space, does not permit their recital now. CHAPTER XVI. FRUIT. Oregon and Washington are already noted for the production of big apples, big pears, and many other "big" things, in the |