The branch or spur up Raging River to the Ruffner mine, on Section 16, is located, and some little work has been done, but it is not being prosecuted at present, so I do not expect we will be able to get out any coal from there before next spring or early summer.
Another item showing the prosperity of Seattle, is the opening of a five-mile circuit of cable road to Lake Washington, which occurred last Saturday. I will send you some papers giving some items that may be of interest.
[Sidenote: Southern Pacific Railroad supposed to be coming to Seattle Harbor.]
A syndicate of men prominent in the Southern Pacific Railroad management purchased Milton Point, the land directly west, across Seattle Bay, from the town, and are clearing it off, and say they will make extensive improvements over there in the near future. They are building a large ferry steamer, and have a franchise to run a ferry hourly between town and the front. It is to be on the route by December 1st. Report says that the Southern Pacific is coming in there.
At Smith Cove quite a little town is building up, and property is advancing all around there.
REPORT FROM E. A. ROUTHE, ESQ., CONCERNING SPOKANE FALLS, ETC.
Our city has progressed in growth splendidly since you were here. There are now fully 13,000 inhabitants. The census of July 1st showed 12,000. About $1,500,000 have been expended in buildings this year. Eight business blocks of brick and granite have been built this season. One of these cost $150,000. Four of these blocks are three stories, three are four stories, and one five stories.
[Illustration: SPOKANE FALLS, WASHINGTON TERRITORY.]
Forty miles of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway will be completed between here and the Big Bend by December 1st. The iron, engines and cars are nearly all here, and the farmers in Lincoln County are greatly rejoiced at the opportunity for shipping their grain and stock to market.
[Sidenote: Prodigious development of the mining interests.]
The development in the mines this year has been greater than all the work done heretofore. The gold mines near Murray, Idaho, have yielded beyond the hopes of all interested in them. I saw four gold bricks, at the First National Bank, said to contain $37,000. These were from one mine, a South Fork mine of the Coeur d'Alene.