BELLINGHAM  , a

city of Whatcom county, Washington, U.S.A., on the E. side of Bellingham Bay, 96 m . N. of Seattle . Pop . (1900) 11,062; (1905, state est.) 26,000; (1910, U.S. census) 24,298 . Area about 23 sq. m . It is served by the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Canadian Pacific, and the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia railways—being a terminus of the last named, which operates only 62 m. of line and connects with the Mt . Baker goldfields and the Nooksack valley farm and orchard region . A suburban electric line was projected in 1907 . About 22 M. south-east of the city is the main body of Lake Whatcom, 13 M. long, 14 m. wide, and 318 ft. higher than the city and the source of its water-supply, a gravity system which cost $I,000,000, being owned by the city . Belling-ham has two Carnegie libraries . Among the principal buildings are the county court-house, the city hall, the Young Men's Christian Association building, and Beck's theatre, with a seating capacity of 2200 . The largest of the state's normal colleges is situated here; in 1907 it had a faculty of 25 and 350 students; there are two high schools, two business colleges, and one industrial school also in the city .

The excellent

harbour, and the fact that Bellingham is nearer to the great markets of Alaska than any other city in the states, make the port an important shipping centre . In the value of manufactured product the city was fourth in the state in 1905 (being passed only by Tacoma, Seattle and Spokane), with a value of $3,293,988; according to a census taken by the local chamber of commerce the value of the product in 1906 was $7,751,464 . The principal industrial establishments are shingle (especially cedar) and saw-mills, salmon canneries and factories for the manufacture of tin cans, and machinery used in the canning of salmon . Motive and electric lighting power is brought 52 M. from the falls of the north fork of the Nooksack river, where there is a power plant which furnishes 3500 horsepower . There are deposits of clay and limestone in the surrounding country, and cement is manufactured in the vicinity of the city . The blue-grey Chuckanut sandstone is quarried on the shore of Chuckanut Bay, south of Bellingham; and a coarse, dark-brown sandstone is quarried on Sucia Island, west of the city . There are quarries also on Waldron Island . Bellingham was formed in 1903 by the consolidation of the cities of New Whatcom (pop. in 'coo, 6834) and Fairhaven (pop. in 1900, 4228), and was chartered as a city of the first class in 1904; it is named from Bellingham Bay, which Vancouver is supposed to have named, in 1792, in honour of Sir Henry Bellingham .