1860 was 8,420, and of white females, 3,144; total whites, including 426 taxed Indians, 11,564. The number of colored persons was 30. The present population of Washington is variously estimated at from 15,000 to 25,000. The truth probably lies between the extremes. COUNTIES AND COUNTY TOWNS.-Washington Territory had, at the beginning of the year 1866, the following counties. We annex the names of the county towns, and the population of each county, according to the census of 1860.

Steila

TOWNS.-Olympia, the capital of the Territory and of Thurston County, is situated at the head of Puget's Sound. It lies pleasantly under a hill, and contains from five hundred to six hundred inhabitants. The other more important towns or settlements are Nesqually, coom, New York, Seattle, Port Townsend, and New Dungeness, on Puget's Sound, and Admiralty Inlet; Pacific City, Cathlamet, Monticello, Fort Vancouver, and Cascade City, on the Columbia River; Cowlitz Farms and Wabassport, on or near the Cowlitz River; Pennscove, on Whidby's Island; and Wallula, a mining center in the south-east part toward Idaho.

THE COAST AND COAST TRADE.-Washington Territory possesses great natural advantages, having a vast seaboard on the Pacific Ocean, the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca, and adjacent waters. The Columbia River and its numerous tributaries flow through the Territory 49th to the 46th parallel of latitude.

from the

The commerce of the people residing on the seaboard is principally confined to lumbering, fishing, and coal-mining. Large carges of spars,

in

lumber, shingles, etc., are constantly shipped to San Francisco, the Sandwich Islands, South America, China, New Zealand, and ports i Europe. Large quantities of coal are shipped from Bellingham Bay. Oysters, salmon, and other varieties of fish are also exported to a large

extent.

The Columbia River forms the line of division between the State of Oregon and Washington Territory. Passing along in a northerly direc tion, the first place of importance on the sea-coast of Washington Territory is Shoalwater Bay, which is said to produce the finest flavored

oysters on the coast. The country bordering on the Bay is

settled by

men who combine the occupation of farming with that of fishing. Oysters in great quantities are annually shipped from Shoalwater Bay to San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, and other places on the Pacific coast. Immense quantities of poles and spars are exported from this point. These, with about 30,000 bushels of oysters, make the value of the annual exports hence about $120,000.

Passing along the coast, about thirteen miles further north is Gray's Harbor. The region about this bay is settled by people who have erected lumber and planing-mills, and built up a town near the mouth of Chehalis River, which is navigable for boats for sixty miles, and drains a country of good agricultural land. Several smaller streams also empty into the bay.

North of Gray's Harbor are the Queniult, Raft, Queets, Ohahlats, Quilcuyats, and several smaller rivers emptying into the Pacific Ocean south of Cape Flattery, which forms the southern headland of that vast expanse of water known as the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca. The entrance to this strait is about fourteen miles wide, and the distance from the entrance to Whidby's Island, its eastern boundary, is about fourteen miles. The depth of water throughout the strait may be inferred from the fact that the officers of the United States Coast Survey found no bottom in its deepest parts, even with a hundred and fifty fathoms of line.

The Straits of Juan de Fuca is the main artery for the waters of Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, Possession Sound, Hood's Canal, Canal de Haro, Rosario Strait, Bellingham Bay, and the vast Gulf of Georgia, extending between Vancouver's Island and New Caledonia for a distance of one hundred and twenty, with an average width of twenty miles.

Sailing along the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the south or Washington Territory shore, Neah Harbor, Clallam Bay, Port Angeles, New Dungeness, and Port Townsend are passed; thence up Admiralty Inlet into Puget Sound to Budd's Inlet, at the head of which is located Olympia, the capital of Washington Territory. From this point to the 49th parallel of latitude-the dividing line between the United States and the British Possessions-a large number of bays, harbors, and ports line the vast sheet of water extending the whole distance.

COLORADO.

COLORADO was organized as a Territory March 2, 1861, from parts of Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah, and is situated on each side of the Rocky Mountains, between latitude 37 and 41 degrees north, and longitude 25 and 32 degrees west from Washington. It is situated immediately west of the State of Kansas. Its geographical area, almost unequaled in position, is bisected from north to south by the primary Cordillera, or great mountain chain, which divides the waters of the Atlantic from those of the Pacific Ocean.

The eastern half of Colorado is occupied by an undulating plain, the western half by the stupendous Rocky Mountain ranges. The former, abounding in great rivers, is of very uniform fertility, checkered with arable and pastoral lands, alternating one with the other. It is favored with temperate seasons, mineral fuel, a salubrious atmosphere, and a fine climate. The mountains embrace every variety of structure, immense massiveness and altitude, fertile flanks of unfailing pastures, and stupendous forests. In their ever-varying scenery, no element of beauty or sublimity, of the very highest order, is wanting. In their vastness of bulk, they constitute a striking feature of the empire of the American people, there especially revealed in the grandest forms.

Such are the great advantages of climate, soil, and scenery which are presented to the eye of the observer and traveler on a superficial view. But science, and the untiring and ever-conquering energies of the American people, have developed in these mountain ranges, in the plains which spread themselves at their feet, and in the vast and fertile parks which are encircled by their flanks, a mineral and agricultural richness which the world had never previously conceived.

First and foremost of the mineral resources of the mountains is GOLD. To the extraction of this metal the energies of the people have been most successfully directed. For the first year in which labor to this end was systematically applied, gold was produced, in round numbers, to the amount of $5,000,000. During the succeeding year the sum of $8,000,000 was reached, and in 1863 the mines yielded about $12,000,000. There has been a continual increase since, and hereafter, as the art of saving the precious dust is better known and developed, and the amount of labor and capital increased, it may safely be estimated that at least $50,000,000 will be annually produced.

But, in addition to gold, the mountains, their flanks, and the parks they inclose, are rich in other mineral products. Silver, copper, lead, and iron have been discovered in largely paying quantities. Indications are abundant of the presence of cinnabar, platina, and precious stones. Bituminous coal, inexhaustible in quantity, is obtained in almost any part of Colorado.

The agricultural advantages of Colorado are quite as extensive and abundant as the mineral. The eastern portion, embracing the great plains at the foot of the mountains, and the large parks, seven in number, is abundantly watered by living streams, whose valleys afford a soil second to none the world can show for arable agriculture; while the highlands and dividing ridges are a perpetual grazing-field, where richest grass flourishes during the entire year.

Such extraordinary advantages, both mineral and agricultural, afford, as a necessary consequence, the largest and most promising field for the cultivation of all classes of manufactures and the industrial arts. A present population in Colorado of 50,000 to 100,000, and constantly increasing, located at a great distance from the markets and commercial and manufacturing towns, both of the Eastern and Western oceans, are continually demanding, and must be supplied with, all those commodities, the result of mechanical art, which have become necessities to the American people. Already this want has been felt, and the advantages of establishing manufactures understood, and already they are beginning to prove their value and establish their importance throughout Colorado.

Such, briefly and imperfectly told, are the natural advantages of Colorado.

The continental railroad, connecting the two oceans, already assuming the proportions of an undertaking actually accomplished, passes through the center of Colorado from east to west, thus placing it in a commanding position upon the road destined to become the great highway of nations.

Colorado stretches some 400 miles from east to west, by not quite 300 from north to south, containing an area of 111,700 square miles, or 71,488,000 acres. The Rocky Mountains traverse its entire length, giving rise within its boundaries to the Rio Grande del Norte, to the Colorado, the Arkansas, the Kansas, and the Platte. It is thus the central water-shed of our continent. Both Pike's and Long's Peaks are in Colorado, with the famous South and North Peaks-the former giving rise to the Arkansas, the latter to the North Platte. The Rocky Mountains, with their spurs, valleys, and forks, cover at least 40,000 square miles, or more than one-third of the entire area, pre senting, for many miles of their eastern face, a bold and regular wall of naked rock, whence their name. Their two towering peaks, already named, are seen from a great distance across the gently-rolling desert on this side, affording landmarks to the dusty, weary traverser of the plains. These are the home of innumerable but fast-dwindling herds of buffalo, which, however, are generally found in the more fertile glades of Kansas and Nebraska, a hundred miles this side of the Colorado line.

Its population is rapidly increasing. Several fine towns serve as centers of supply and trade, and offer fine facilities for schools, churches, etc. The direct route from Fort Kearney to Salt Lake passes through the northern part of Colorado, and a fine road from Denver City to the overland route makes the region around Pike's Peak easily accessible. The mineral resources of Colorado are open

ing very advantageously to operative capital. The Colorado mines differ somewhat from those of California, where placer and gulch mining permits single operatives to do a good business. The Colorado metals run in beds, mixed with quartz and pyrites, necessitating all the appliances of underground mining, crushing-mills, etc., to render the ores available. This will deter adventurers, to some extent, from settling in Colorado, but it will call in heavy capital, will raise up large communities, will compel large cultivation of the rich valleys, and thus render Colorado, with its magnificent climate, one of the best of regions for the enterprising man to settle.

PIKE'S PEAK.-The following account of this famous peak of the Rocky Mountains and its environs, is condensed from the American Cyclopedia, published by D. Appleton & Co., New York:

Pike's Peak is in latitude 39° north, and longitude 38° west from Washington. It is named in honor of General Zebulon M. Pike, who discovered it in 1806. Its height is variously given at from 12,000 to 14,500 feet above the sea level. The ascent, which is made from Colorado City, is extremely difficult, passing over rugged hills and along the precipitous walls of narrow canons, which abound in cascades and picturesque views. In ascending, the transition is extremely abrupt from a dense pine forest to the bare, open mountain-side, with no vegetation except beds of grass among the rocks. Near the summit, blossoms of faint yellow mingled with purple spring from the ground in great profusion, so near banks of snow that one may pluck flowers with one hand and gather snow in the other. Two enormous gorges extend from the top almost to the base, one of them visible to the naked eye at the distance of 80 miles. The summit is nearly level, embracing about 60 acres, and composed of angular slabs and blocks of coarse, disintegrating granite. It affords one of the grandest views on the North American continent, extending nearly 100 miles in all directions, embracing the great plains on the east, and on the north, south, and west a vast expanse of mountains, of diverse forms and varying colors, including several transparent, sparkling lakes, and the sources of four great rivers, the Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Colorado of California. Directly west and thousands of feet below, are the South Park, a crescent-shaped section of smooth, treeless prairie, 40 miles by 15 in extent, and other fields of rich floral beauty, inclosed by rugged mountain walls. In the gorges near the summit, snow is perpetual.

The mountain has furnished the popular name for the Rocky Mount ain gold region, not yet fully explored, but embracing portions of the original Territories of Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, and Oregon. For many years vague reports and traditions of gold in this region had been current among trappers and Indians. In 1857, a party of civilized Cherokees made the first organized attempt to explore it, but were driven back by hostile savages. In 1858, a company from Georgia and another from Lawrence, Kansas, reported that they had discovered gold in paying quantities in the valleys near the base of Pike's Peak.