and cars were bought, and'in two months from the time the first blow was struck at Fair haven, which was in May, 1889, trains of cars were running into and out of the town."
That is the story in a nutshell, of the founding of cities by the intelligence of this age.
Bellingham Bay does not differ greatly in appearance from the bay at Seattle. In front of Fairhaven, which is about seventeen miles due north, and a little east of Anacortes, is a narrow peninsula similar to that on which West Seattle is situated, which is occupied as a reservation by the Lummi Indians, and Lummi Island, extending a few miles south of the peninsula. The town-site slopes down handsomely to the bay, presenting an attractive view to the passenger on the incoming steamer, which is enhanced by the character of the buildings already completed and in course of erection, some of which are surprisingly ornate for the size and age of the town.
Mount Baker, with its broken cone, and family of lesser peaks about it, lies almost directly east from Fairhaven, and is a noble object with its ten thousand eight hundred and ten feet of height overtopping the darkly-mantled Cascade Range. The scenic attractions of Fairhaven and the other Bellingham Bay towns are fully as great as any of the cities farther on Puget Sound, and its natural resources appeared to me to be almost identical with those of Anacortes, except in the matter of distance from the Strait and length of water-front. Vessels require no towing to the wharves of either. The same valleys are tributary to both, the same iron, coal, and marble deposits, the same timber, and the same fisheries. It rains a little more at Fairhaven than at the head of the Strait, but only about half as much as at Olympia, and the temperature is perhaps a trifle less mild, though flowers bloom every month of the year in the open air.
The Nooksahk River empties into the north end of Bellingham Bay, and therefore is more directly tributary to the towns upon it than elsewhere. The valley of this river is very extensive, stretching from British Columbia to Whatcom, south, and embracing a scope of country fifty miles in width due east of Bellingham Bay. The timber being removed, the soil produces everything entrusted to it in marvellous abundance,—as, for in
