does less business. The Stillaguamish, like the Snohomish, has three mouths, two opening into Port Susan, and one into a nameless portion of the Sound connected with Port Susan by a passage not more than half a mile in width. A project is on foot to connect Utsalady with the mainland railroads by a line to the mouth of the Stillaguamish, bridging this passage.
The rivers on this side of the Sound, especially these northern rivers, have all this delta feature. They have rushed down from the mountains for ages, bearing the soil formed from the rocks and vegetable mould, which the tides have beaten back again until wide areas of the richest marsh-land have been formed. In seasons of flood the river has washed out several channels by which to get to deep water through this impediment. These marsh lands when diked are the most productive in the State, if not in the world, but in the amplitude of other resources their value is not yet fully appreciated.
Speaking of other resources, the reader is referred for one of the most important, but undeveloped, to the chapter on geology and mineralogy. All that is there said of the country immediately north of the Stillaquamish is undoubtedly true here. The east shore of the Sound from Bellingham Bay to Nisqually River is rich in minerals,—coal, iron, silver, marble, building-stone, asbestos, tin, and ores of other metals. But there are not yet hands enough in the State, however willing, to uncover this wealth. Sultan, on a branch of the Skykomish, is in a rich silrer-bearing district.
When I speak of this country as tributary to Seattle, it is as dependent upon the larger market of a commercial metropolis for supplies. The same might be said of the whole northern part of West Washington, a condition of things which is not likely to be perpetuated when its grand resources begin in earnest to be developed.
Pointing our steamer's prow southward, we again enter the main body of the Sound, Admiralty Inlet, and rounding Whidbey Island proceed to Port Townsend.
