r prosperous and growing grain center with about
600 people.

HARRINGTON, on the Great Northern railway, is a town of some 1,200
people. It has a beautiful location, commands the trade of a large
farming county, ships grain and livestock, and is a prosperous
and growing town.

CRESTON, EGYPT, and BLUESTEM are smaller growing commercial centers.

MASON COUNTY

Mason county lies on the upper reaches of Puget sound, having the
Olympic mountains at its north, where about one-fourth of the county
is in the Olympic forest reserve. Its total area is about 900 square
miles, and it has a population of about 6,000. Hood's canal penetrates
well into the center of the county in its great bend, giving it a
very long salt-water shore line. From the Olympic mountains numerous
streams flow into the Puget sound, while others empty their waters
into Gray's harbor.

The county is a great forest of splendid timber, which has been
only to a limited degree cut out. The soil of the foothills and
valleys Is composed chiefly of shot clays and alluvial deposits,
making good farming, stock-raising and fruit-growing lands.

RESOURCES.

Logging and its allied industries constitute the main industries
of the county, Much of the logs are shipped out of the county to
feed sawmills in other parts of the Sound.

Raising and marketing oysters is an important source of wealth to
the county.

There is already considerable acreage for farming and stock-raising,
stock finding pasturage the year round. This industry will grow
as the land is cleared.

The county affords splendid hunting and fishing in season.

TRANSPORTATION.

The county is so cut into by the inlets and bays of the sound that
it has splendid transportation facilities by steamer to all the
sound ports. The Northern Pacific railway reaches its southern
boundary. No other railroads traverse the county but its logging
railroads, which can give only a limited service.

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PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

SHELTON is the county seat, situated on an arm of the sound at the
terminus of the logging railroad, and has about 1,200 inhabitants.
Steamers from its wharves reach all the parts of the sound directly
or by connection with others.

The logging industry, manufacturing lumber, cultivating oysters,
fishing and farming are the chief industries of its people. It has
four churches, good schools, a newspaper, good stocks of goods,
volunteer fire department, electric lights, gravity water