The location of Port Townsend puts that town out of the general competition. The same is true of Olympia. Whatcom, or some possible town near the line between Whatcom and Skagit counties, might grow into consequence if made the terminus of some transcontinental road. This point, however, is involved in the larger question of the course of the Manitoba Railroad. With the present outlook, the only two competing towns on Puget Sound are Tacoma and Seattle. The former has the advantage of being the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and of having large private capital to advance its interests. These have made the town all that it is. It is handsomely laid out, and well built. It has an elegant hotel, and a population said in Tacoma to be 12,000, and in Seattle to be 7,500. The harbor has water enough, but the landing is bad; there being no level ground available for wharves or business houses near the water. A mere roadway, cut out of the high bluff, furnishes the only line of communication. The town is one to two hundred feet above the water and above the main railroad depot, and must be reached by a long, steep road. Tacoma is twenty-six miles farther from the sea than Seattle, has a back country of inferior resources, and has no advantage in distances from the East. [Sidenote: Advantages of Seattle.] Seattle has already been described. It has probably double the population of Tacoma, and more than double the business. It has flat ground enough for commercial purposes. In its position, its harbor, its relations to the back country, its materials for trade, commerce, manufactures, its present and prospective railroad connections, it surpasses all present and future competitors on Puget Sound. There will be mining and trading towns at numerous points between Seattle and Salal Prairie. [Sidenote: Towns of East Washington.] The towns on the east flank of the Cascade Mountains may have a future; _i.e._, Cle-ellum, Ellensburg, and North Yakima. They have a chance for the State capital, and there may be manufacturing as well as mining towns near the iron ore, and other mineral beds. Small places will also spring up at the mouth of the Wenatchie and the Okinagane, and at the termini of the steamboat landings. The county seat of Lincoln cannot remain at Sprague. Wheatland would have a chance for that. [Illustration: VIEW OF THE CITY OF SPOKANE FALLS, EASTERN TERMINUS SEATTLE, LAKE SHORE AND EASTERN RAILWAY.] [Sidenote: Spokane Falls and its fine prospects.]