917,603
The decrease in shipments in 1889 is accounted for by competition with British Columbia mines, and the decline of prices in the California markets. That this was not the true cause seems evident when it is known that during the autumn and winter of 1889-90 there was almost a coal famine in San Francisco, and that prices ruled high. It looks more like a combination among coal-miners to force prices up. The market in San Francisco is variable, owing to the fact that English vessels coming out in ballast to load with wheat and salmon carry coal instead of rock in the hold, and sell to dealers for a moderate price coal of a good quality. This is a kind of competition which cannot always be foreseen or provided for.
It is an interesting fact that the great Southern Pacific system of railroads is compelled to depend upon Washington for steam-making fuel. That corporation owns the Carbon Hill mines in the Wilkeson district, four in number, which furnish about eight hundred tons daily. A railroad has been constructed through the canon of Carbon River, with a descending grade, which carries the product of the mines to the bunkers at Tacoma, where it is loaded on a steamer carrying four thousand tons which makes thirty-five trips a year. Sailing-vessels carry the remainder of the output.
When this coal was used in its natural state it carried with it so mucli dirt and grit that the lives of the engineers on the Southern Pacific were rendered burdensome by the effort to keep up steam. A remedy was found in washing the coal, which is now being shipped perfectly clean, the saving in transportation more than paying the expense of washing, while the danger from sparks is very much lessened.
The other Wilkeson mines being worked belong to the Tacoma Coal and Coke Company, of which A. C. Smith is president; and the Wilkeson Coal and Coke Company, Hugh White, president. The Bucoda mines are on the head-waters of the Chehalis River, in Thurston County. They once formed the main supply of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and belong now to the Northwestern Coal and Transportation Company, of which Samuel Coulter is president. The superintendent says of them that the seam being worked is seven feet in thickness, with dark-blue sandstone roof, with the same rock one hundred
