SEATTLE.

Commercial and manufacturing advantages.Concerning this city of 15,000 to 16,000 inhabitants, I need not repeat what has been so well said in the reports of Governor Squire, and of United States officers who have examined and reported to the Government with regard to this location—notably, Gen. Isaac I. Stephens, Gen. George B. McClellan, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, and others; also by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Its location, its harbor, its people, its commerce and manufactures, its solid and rapid growth, and its local relation to all the great natural resources of the Territory, give to Seattle advantages which cannot be equaled by any other port on the Sound. Its climate, as to temperature, both in winter and summer, is remarkable.Good climate. It is pleasantly cool in summer, and in winter rarely severe. Its only drawback is an excess of moisture for perhaps four months of the winter season. But this is preferable to the violent storms and deep snows and extreme cold to which the Eastern plains and the upper Mississippi country are subject, and which sometimes attack New York and the New England States. On Puget Sound there are no blizzards nor cyclones, and rarely so much as an inch of snow. The medical testimonies give a very favorable hill of health.

The industries of city and country are prosecuted with less interruption from weather than in any of the States east of the Rocky Mountains. The annual rainfall is not greater, not so great, indeed, as in some parts of the Atlantic seaboard. It is not so well distributed among the months as it is eastward; but outdoor work rarely stops on Puget Sound.

Good population.The population of Seattle struck me as exceedingly good. Her controlling classes are men of character, intelligence and substance. The appearance of the stores, the streets, the offices, and factories, would do credit to an old city. Water, electric lights, street railways, good fire companies, well organized police, handsome residences, churches, schools—all attest the progress of her civilization. High civilization.Her wharves and railroad depots are crowded with business. The special pride of the city seems to be her schools, public and private. Her large and handsome school buildings seem purposely to have been placed in the most prominent positions. Her public school system is well organized and supported. The University of the Territory is located here, and in full operation. These things, considered together, augur most favorably for the future of this young city.

Railroad lines.Her growth will be rapidly accelerated by the extension of her railroads. Besides her coal roads, she will soon be practically the connecting point of certainly two, and perhaps three, transcontinental railroad lines. She now has railroad connection with the Northern Pacific, and will shortly be connected with the Canadian Pacific by the West Coast road. But the road that will do most for Seattle, indeed, the road which of itself would make a city at its Sound terminus, is the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad. This will be true if the road never crosses the limits of Washington Territory; but no doubt it will ultimately cross the continent, or at least have close transcontinental connections.

When these roads are thus extended, they will bring vast quantities of lumber, and of mineral and agricultural products, and carry in exchange foreign and domestic products for the supply of the rural and mining population, to say nothing of the great Eastern trade. Her coastwise and foreign trade have already been discussed.

The chief ship-building centre.Puget Sound must also become the chief ship-building centre of the continent, and the possession by Seattle of the great fresh-water lakes so close to the Sound, and the fact that here will be the point where the Bessemer pig-iron and its products will be manufactured, will give this point advantage over all others on the Sound. Seattle will build ships for England, New England, South America, Asia, and the Islands of the Ocean; and just here will first be seen the dawning of the new day which will come to our American merchant marine, of late so depressed. And the Government itself must sooner or later establish on Lake Washington a navy-yard where ships can be built of the best material at minimum cost; and where her ships out of commission can lie landlocked, secure from the teredo and the corroding effects of sea-water, and can at once get rid of their barnacles.Seattle better located than San Francisco.

Seattle can have no rival on the Pacific Coast except San Francisco, which has the only good harbor and entrance outside of Puget Sound, but which has no coal, nor iron, nor timber, and whose back-country does not equal the Snoqualmie valley of East Washington for agricultural and mineral capabilities.