Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/263

Rh stratified, and splits almost as straight as cedar. It stands in the quarry almost perpendicular to its stratification, and is split in vast surfaces of nearly smooth stone. It is quarried by cutting through a wall of the stone on a level with the wharf, then making up-and-down cuts, and lateral ones, until the blocks are of a size small enough to be handled; after which they are slid down to the floor of the quarry to be dressed, or shipped in the rough.

Coal was first discovered at Bellingham Bay in 1852, by a Captain Pattle, in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, while looking out for spars. A company attempting to work it failed; but another seam being discoverddiscovered [sic] a little farther to the north, at a place called Seahome, another company was formed to work this one, and succeeded. It was subsequently sold to a capitalist of San Francisco, who, after a large outlay, is making it profitable. Miners call this one of the most regular coal seams that is known. Its thickness is fifteen feet, with only two divisions of clay. There appears to be a coal deposit, very little interrupted, all the way from Frazer River in British Columbia, to the Columbia River, and beyond.

Whatcom, a mile or two south of Seahome, is the county-seat of Whatcom County, and a place of probable future importance. It was founded in the beginning of the Frazer River gold fever, in 1858, when as many as ten thousand people were encamped here waiting transportation to the mines. A mill was erected for getting out lumber, and wharves built for the accommodation of the half-dozen steamers, and numerous vessels used to carry passengers and freight to this point. But this splendid prospect for Whatcom was speedily clouded over. The Governor of British