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CHAPTER XVI.

Seattle, the City of Destiny.

Seattle, the metropolis of the State of Washington, is situated on Elliott Bay, on the eastern shore of Puget Sound. Its population has doubled in the last five years, caused by the wonderful influx of Alaska gold, as it is the headquarters for outfitting, and controls the trade of Alaska and the Yukon territory, and is also the base of supplies for the Puget Sound navy yard. It has the best navy dry-dock on the Pacific Coast and the largest dry-dock in the United States. The battleship Nebraska is now under construction here for the American government.

More than seventy steamers are engaged, this being the center of the Sound steamship traffic, besides lines

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