Geological Survey Bulletin 611 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part A

SHEET No. 27. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Although the railway is steadily descending as it follows Green River, the canyon grows no deeper, for the reason that the westward slope of the top of the plateau in which it is cut is about the same as the grade of the stream. In the vicinity of Lester the stream flows about 3,000 feet below the tops of the highest hills on either side and this depth is maintained for a considerable distance.

Hot Springs (see sheet 27, p. 196) was once a noted resort, with a large hotel on the right of the track; but a number of years ago the hotel was destroyed by fire, and it has not been rebuilt. Green River is now utilized by the city of Tacoma for its water supply, and great care is exercised in keeping the stream free from pollution. The intake of the waterworks will be seen lower down the stream.

Below Hot Springs the timber was originally very heavy, but most of it has been cut off or burned, and the traveler can obtain a very inadequate idea of a virgin Washington forest from what he sees along this route. In many places, however, the second growth is very dense, and it would be difficult to force one's way through it. In this vicinity the traveler gets his first good view of the luxuriant growth of ferns that characterizes the forests of the coastal belt of Oregon and Washington. (See Pl. XXVI, p. 194.) The rocks, although much obscured by vegetation, are similar to the lava flows and breccias that occur near the summit of the range and also on the east side. In the Green River valley the rocks have been smoothed and rounded by the glaciers that formerly flowed down the valley and spread out on the plain below. The smooth and open character of the valley continues down as far as Eagle Gorge, but beyond that place the river enters a narrow, steep-walled canyon that in no respect resembles the valley higher up. The contour map shows that a broad valley continues below Eagle Gorge to Barneston, but that neither the river nor the railway follows it. From the arrangement of the valleys it is evident that Green River, at some time in the past, flowed in this valley instead of in its present course below Eagle Gorge.¹

PLATE XXVI.—THE ALMOST IMPASSIBLE TANGLE OF A WASHINGTON FOREST.

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¹The old and new valleys of Green River afford an excellent example of changes that may take place in the drainage system of a country as a consequence of the invasion of a glacier. The river valleys on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains are in general well developed, showing that the streams have occupied them for a long time. The original course of Green River below Eagle Gorge was doubtless north by way of Page Mill and Barneston, for the present canyon below Eagle Gorge is so narrow that it must have been formed comparatively recently. The relative size of the two valleys is shown in figure 38, which represents a cross section about 3 miles below Eagle Gorge.

FIGURE 38.—Section showing size and shape of the valley of Green River below Eagle Gorge, Wash., compared with the valley the river abandoned when it was blocked by ice.

To divert a stream intrenched in a valley from 2,000 to 3,000 feet deep must have required a formidable barrier. Such a barrier could have been produced only in one of four ways—(1) by a landslide which filled the valley below the point of diversion; (2) by a lava flow occupying a similar position; (3) by a fault across the valley and the sudden upward movement of the land below the fault; or (4) by the blocking of the valley by ice. If the change were due to any one of the first three of these causes there should remain in the old valley some traces of the barrier, but, as no such features have been observed, it must be concluded that ice was the agent that caused the change. Ice would leave no permanent barrier, and so no surface indications would be expected, except the ordinary deposits that are made by a glacier. Evidence of this kind is abundant and clearly shows that the region was deeply covered with ice at a recent geologic date.

The exact manner in which the ice blocked this outlet of Green River is a matter of speculation, but probably the glacier came down the Sound after the local glaciers in Green and Snoqualmie valleys had melted back from the mountain front and crowded up the valley of Green River until it completely blocked that valley with a great dam of ice, hundreds and possibly thousands of feet in thickness. This barrier seems to have been sufficient to raise the water of Green River until it flowed over a low divide that must have existed between the Green River valley and a small stream flowing to the west past Palmer Junction. Beyond this divide the river found an unobstructed outlet which it at once proceeded to deepen and which it finally cut below the level of the former outlet by Barneston. By the time the ice had disappeared Green River had become so deeply intrenched in its new course that it persisted, and it remains to this day in the new valley it was thus compelled to occupy.

Although this change occurred during the Great Ice Age, geologically it was very recent, as is shown by the narrowness and steepness of the new part of the gorge. Time enough has not elapsed for the river to broaden its channel, and this difference the traveler will doubtless realize as the train passes from the open valley in the vicinity of Eagle Gorge into the dim shadows of the narrow canyon below, in which there is barely room for the track between the river and the bluffs, and even to make this passage deep rock cuts and many crossings of the stream are necessary.

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That part of the Green River valley below Eagle Gorge has all the features characteristic of newly cut gorges in fairly hard rocks. It is narrow and tortuous and the stream abounds in tumbling cascades and pools of deep water. It is a beautiful glen in which the rocks are covered with delicate mosses and draped with ferns whose graceful fronds sparkle with mist from the numerous cascades.

Just after passing milepost 81 the traveler can see the head gate of the Tacoma waterworks, and the deep-blue pool above, which certainly looks as if no polluting substances had ever affected it. After being accustomed to the water supplied to some of the eastern cities the traveler may envy these Pacific coast towns their nearness to mountain sources and the never-failing water supply they can procure there. Seattle also draws its supply of water from the Cascade Mountains, but as it is taken from Cedar River, the next stream on the right (north), neither the intake nor the conduit are visible from the train.

At Palmer Junction the Northern Pacific divides into two branches, the older line turning to the left (south) and going by way of Buckley to Tacoma, which at the time of the completion of the railway was its western terminus, and the other turning slightly to the right and going to Seattle by way of Auburn.¹

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¹The original plan of the Northern Pacific was to build on the north side of Columbia River from the mouth of Snake River to Kalama and thence northward to Puget Sound. That part of the road from Kalama to Tacoma was the first to be constructed, the first train reaching Tacoma on December 16, 1873. Financial difficulties forced a suspension of operations for some time, but in 1880 building was resumed and actively pushed from Mandan, N. Dak., westward and from the mouth of Snake River eastward. The line along Columbia River from Kalama to Snake River had not yet been touched, but it was thought that if the line east of Snake River could be completed, boat service on the river would accommodate the traffic until the company was strong enough financially to undertake the building of that line. In the meantime a franchise for the construction of a road along the south bank of the Columbia had been obtained by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co., and traffic arrangements had been entered into between this company and the Northern Pacific for the joint use of this line from Wallula to Portland. While these negotiations were under way the construction of the main line was carried on rapidly, and the last spike connecting the eastern and western sections was driven a little west of Garrison in September, 1883.

As early as 1876 a line was built from Tacoma up Puyallup River to the Wilkeson coal mine for the immediate purpose of procuring coal, and ultimately as a part of the Cascade branch, which the Northern Pacific, even at that early date, was considering a necessity. Work on this branch was suspended during the reorganization of the company in the years 1873-1879 and also while the company was bending all its energies to the completion of the main line in 1880-1883. Finally work was begun on this branch in earnest in 1884, but owing to the delay in constructing the Stampede Tunnel, the first train over the line did not reach Tacoma until July 3, 1887. In 1883 the railroad from Seattle to Auburn and Puyallup was built by a company of local capitalists, but later it was taken over by the Northern Pacific. The last cut-off constructed was the road from Palmer Junction to Auburn, which now gives a direct line from St. Paul to Seattle.

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About a mile east of Palmer Junction the railway enters one of the productive coal fields of the State, though little coal or evidence of coal mining can be seen from the train. Several mines have been developed, however, south of the river, within a distance of 3 or 4 miles, and one or two mines to the north.

Between Palmer Junction and Kanaskat the Northern Pacific is crossed by a branch of the St. Paul road which leads to several mining towns along the mountain front and terminates at Enumclaw, on the Tacoma line of the northern Pacific, 10 miles to the south. The mountains end abruptly at Kanaskat and give place to a glacial plain. The glacial drift on this plain is underlain by shale, sandstone, and coal beds, which belong to the Puget group and which are of about the same age as the Roslyn (Eocene) formation on the other side of the Cascade Range, but few of the rocks are exposed at the surface. There are two large coal mines at Ravensdale, one of which can be seen on the left (south) as the train passes through the village.¹

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¹The large coal tipple which the traveler can see on the left is used for hoisting coal up a slope about 1,500 feet long from the workings below. Three coal beds are being worked in this mine. The main slope leads down one bed and a rock tunnel has been driven from it to the other two.

The main bed ranges in thickness in the mine from 4 feet 4 inches to 10 feet 7 inches and where thickest is broken by many partings of shale and bone that make mining expensive and detract greatly from the value of the coal. The other two beds are 5 feet 7 inches and 7 feet 10 inches thick, but contain much impure or dirty coal. The heating value of the coal ranges from 11,290 to 11,850 British thermal units.

The McKay coal bed, which is worked in a mine some distance away from the main line of the road, is about 5 feet thick and is all clear coal without partings. This coal has a heating value of 12,210 British thermal units. Although this mine is less than a mile distant from the one near the track, it has not been possible to determine the relative positions of the coal beds, for the rocks are thrown into numerous folds and broken in many places.

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As the presence of coal beds means that swamps, prevailed at one time in this region, it is reasonable to suppose that vegetation flourished in that far-off time much as it does to-day. Careful search has shown that plants did grow luxuriantly then, and their fossil forms are so well preserved that the botanist has been able not only to distinguish the species that grew here, but to determine from the kind of plants the climate that must have prevailed. In the note below F. H. Knowlton compares the fossil flora with that living in Washington at the present time.²

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²The State of Washington now exhibits great diversity in soil and climatic conditions, with the result that it supports a large and varied flora of not less than 2,500 species of the so-called higher plants alone. As these soil and climatic conditions vary from place to place, there are many sharp, almost abrupt changes in the character of the vegetation. Thus the Cascade Range, although only 6,000 or 7,000 feet high, constitutes an effective barrier which relatively few plants are able to cross. On the east side of the mountains there is an arid transition area where the sagebrush plains of Columbia River give way to the slightly higher, treeless, grass-covered zone known as the bunch-grass prairies. Still higher and nearer the mountains is the yellow-pine belt. Here the forests are composed mainly of the yellow or bull pine, with such undershrubs as the pinebark, buckbrush, roses, and a tall huckleberry.

On the western slope of the Cascades the change in the character of the vegetation is marked. The dominant forest tree is the red fir, which covers fully 90 per cent of the heavily timbered area, in places with a stand so dense that the sun can scarcely penetrate. In a narrow strip along the coast the dominant species is the Sitka or tideland spruce. In the bottom lands, mainly river valleys, the conspicuous trees or shrubs are the red cedar, giant cedar, white fir, large-leaved maple, Oregon ash, cottonwood, western cornel, vine maple, crab apple, willows, the terrible devil's club, and salmonberry. On the gravelly prairies are the only species of oak growing in the State, as well as the black pine and, until the middle of July, a carpet of brilliant flowers.

The fossil flora of this region, found mainly in more or less close association with the numerous coal beds, was also an exceedingly rich and diverse one, numbering, as at present understood, about 350 species, with the probability that it may reach 400 or 500 species when fully known. Not a single one of these fossil species is now known to be living, although many of them belong to genera that are the same as or similar to those that make up the present flora. In view of the so-called accident of preservation, it is probable that the total fossil flora may have equaled the living flora in number of species.

The almost complete change in the character of the flora since the Puget epoch (Eocene) is well shown by the conifers. This group is now dominant in conspicuousness and number of individuals, whereas in Puget time it was almost negligible, being represented by only three kinds—cypress, cedar, and juniper—and these were so scarce that less than twenty examples out of many thousands of specimens have been observed. Another marked difference between the two floras is shown by the presence of palms in the Puget flora. Two very distinct kinds of palms have been found, one with rather small, feather-like leaves, and a huge fan palm, with leaves that must have been at least 5 or 6 feet across. At present palms do not grow wild within a thousand miles of the Puget Sound region.

The traveler will doubtless be struck by the abundance of beautiful ferns now growing along the forest borders in the open, partly shaded locations. Ferns were also present during Puget time, though none that have been found are very closely related to the living forms. Tall, bushy horsetails (Equisetum) are conspicuous in many places, and the group was represented in the fossil flora.

The deciduous-leaved plants, to judge from their fossil remains, were in the vast majority during Puget time and show much diversity. They included figs of several kinds, hackberries, mulberries, many willows, alders, birches, and oaks, a number of poplars, two species of pepper tree, elms, ashes, maples, magnolias, cinnamons, laurels, plums, service berries, dogwoods, custard apples, chestnuts, crab apples, sumachs, bittersweets, blueberries, bush thorns, primroses, and others that are without well-known vernacular names.

The Sound country of Washington, at the time of deposition of the lower beds of the Puget group, is supposed, on account of the abundance of ferns, gigantic palms, figs, and a number of forms now found in the West Indies and tropical South America, to have enjoyed a much warmer climate than it does to-day; but the presence of sumachs, chestnuts, birches, maples, dogwoods, sycamore, etc., in the upper beds of the group would seem to indicate an approach to the climatic conditions prevailing at present.

A number of fossil plants have been found to be common to the east and west sides of the Cascades. This would indicate that approximately similar conditions of climate and topography prevailed throughout this general area during the Puget epoch. The Cascade Range, as it now exists, did not then intervene.

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West of Ravensdale the railway pursues a westerly course, crossing under the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad and then following in a general way a slight depression in the drift without any marked features of relief.

Beyond Covington the valley deepens and becomes more restricted, and the railway cuts show that the valley has been excavated in a thick deposit of glacial gravel. This material, known as the Orting gravel, was deposited by streams flowing from the ice front of the Admiralty glacier (see p. 192) after it had retreated to a position farther north.

At milepost 102 is the State fish hatchery, which supplies fish fry for many of the streams on this side of the mountains. Soon after passing this point the train crosses Green River and is once more in a broad valley in which the timber has been cleared away and farms established. To one not accustomed to the thick forests of the Pacific slope, it is a relief to emerge from their dense shade and enter open country.

After crossing Green River and the broad valley in which it flows the train passes under a high bluff of gravel (Orting) on the south. The origin and geologic age of this gravel, as well as of the other formations of the drift in Washington, are discussed below by W. C. Alden.¹ This gravel has been extensively used by the railway for ballasting the track. At Auburn the railway line across the mountains unites with the line from Portland to Seattle. The rest of the route is directly north down the valley to its junction with Black River, which is the natural outlet of Lake Washington. Below the point of junction the stream is known as Duwamish River, and this the road follows to the tidal flats of Elliott Bay at Seattle.

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¹At a time which probably corresponds to the last or Wisconsin stage of glaciation in the eastern part of the United States, the mountains of Washington were largely covered with ice, and the Vashon lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet extended southward from British Columbia into the Puget Sound basin. This glacier is believed to have attained a thickness of about 2,500 feet. The ice filled the depressions composing the Sound, from the foot of the Olympic Mountains on the west to the base of the Cascades on the east. On the south it reached and covered much of the plains south of Olympia. The ice of this glacier probably coalesced on the east with the local glaciers that descended the slopes and valleys of the Cascades.

The melting of these glaciers left deposits of clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders (the Vashon and Osceola drift), which may now be seen on the elevated tracts between and around the troughs of the Sound but which were not thick enough to fill the deep depressions, so that when free of ice these were occupied by marine waters. This drift is underlain by stratified sand and gravel (Douty gravel; Puyallup sand, and Orting gravel) deposited by waters from the melting of earlier glaciers. These deposits include lignite, formed from vegetation which grew upon the sand and gravel, and they are much weathered and eroded, showing that they were exposed during a long interglacial stage before being overridden and covered by the deposits of the glaciers mentioned above.

Beneath these sands and gravels lie deposits of stiff blue clay, mostly stratified but locally filled with subangular stones and large bowlders. These deposits, known as the Admiralty till, deposited by the Admiralty glacier, were laid down during an earlier stage of glaciation, when the Puget Sound basin was occupied by a lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet, as at the Vashon stage. There are some suggestions that still earlier glaciers occupied the basin, but these are too indefinite to be given much weight.

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The broad valley at Auburn is distinctly different from the ordinary stream valleys of this region, in that it is wider than is required by such streams as now occupy it, it is flatter than valleys excavated by erosion, and it is open to tidewater at both ends—Elliott Bay (Seattle) on the north and Commencement Bay (Tacoma) on the west. The floor of the valley is so flat that streams entering it build delta-like accumulations of sediment upon which the stream channel shifts from place to place. White River, next to Green River on the south and named because of the milky color of its water, derived from the glaciers of Mount Rainier, enters the valley a few miles above Auburn. Part of the stream at times turns south into Puyallup (poo-yal'up) River and reaches tidewater at Tacoma and the other part flows north and unites with Green River. The arrangement of the valleys and their peculiar connection with bays and similar indentations of the coast line strongly suggest that at one time this entire valley from Tacoma to Seattle was an arm of the Sound similar to but smaller than Admiralty Inlet and that it has become a land valley simply by being filled with sediment brought down by the rivers from the Cascade Mountains.

Bailey Willis, who has made a careful study of the Puget Sound region, is of the opinion that the peculiar branching channels of the Sound could have been produced only by the submergence of a land on which a branching river system had formerly existed. If this view is correct, it is evident that many modifications must have been made, for a peculiarity of the channels of the Sound is that they not only unite as the tributaries of a river system unite, but they separate in a most intricate fashion. Taken as a whole, the conclusion appears well founded, but there are many minor points that still remain to be explained.

The White River valley is largely given up to truck farming and dairying. The dairying industry centers about Kent, where there is a large plant for the manufacture of condensed milk. On the left (west) are the lines of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co., the St. Paul road, and the Interurban Electric Co.; on the right the town of Renton, perched partly on the hillside, about 2 miles distant. This is another coal-mining town—in fact, coal mining is the chief business in many parts of the country back from the Sound. Renton is nearer tidewater than the other mining towns of the State, and the coal mined here has a fine reputation in the cities on the Sound as a clean fuel for domestic use.¹

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¹Renton is one of the oldest coal-mining centers of this part of the country, as mines were opened here in 1874. This early activity can not be attributed to the quality of the coal, for that is of a much lower rank than those already described, but it is probably due to the nearness to tidewater, the cleanness of the coal, and its suitability for domestic use.

Two coal beds are worked, and, like most of the other coal beds of this region, they are not lying flat, but dip at an angle of about 12° to the southeast. The coal is brought to the surface through a slope on one of the beds, and a rock tunnel in the mine connects with the other. Each bed is over 8 feet thick everywhere, but this is not all merchantable coal. The average heating value of the coal of these two beds is 11,290 and 10,060 British thermal units.

The Renton coal, when exposed to the weather, slacks badly. On account of this property it is classed as subbituminous coal, the next lower in the scale to bituminous coal, such as is mined at Roslyn and Ravensdale.

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Between mileposts 11 and 10 the Black River branch on the right leads to Renton and other towns in that direction, and at milepost 10 the Renton branch of the interurban trolley line crosses the St. Paul road and then crosses Black River, which is the outlet of Lake Washington. Beyond the crossing of Black River the railway is at the foot of the bluffs on the right side of the valley, and the hillside cuts expose, in several places, sandstone and shale (Puget group), but no coal beds occur in this part of the formation. This part of the valley is known as the Duwamish Valley. At its lower end the stream is actively engaged in filling the bay with the sediment which it carries. The work of the stream has been supplemented in recent years by civic activity in cutting down some of Seattle's hills and in reducing the grades in the business part of the city. On some of the streets the grade was lowered as much as 30 feet, and on others there was a corresponding fill. As the material on which the city is built is glacial drift, steam shovels were largely used for the excavation, but the methods used in hydraulic mining were employed to get rid of the large hill upon which the old Washington Hotel was situated. The railway crosses the wide tidal flats, which are being more and more utilized for business purposes, and reaches the Union Station at Seattle.

The most important natural feature at Seattle is the wonderful harbor, with deep water at the very door of the city. The depth of water is shown on the small map on sheet 27. Other features of interest are the steep water front and the way in which it has been modified and shaped for the use of man, and Lake Washington, which bounds the city on the east and is soon to be thrown open to the commerce of the world by the construction of a ship canal from Salmon Bay through Lake Union and across the narrow neck of land south of the State University. This will greatly increase the harbor facilities, and the fresh water of the lake will afford an efficient means of freeing ocean-going vessels of barnacles.

The State University is beautifully situated on the shore of Lake Washington, and its campus was utilized for the site of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. The city is well supplied with parks and connecting boulevards, and one of the finest views about the city is that of Mount Rainier¹ from the boulevard that follows the shore of Lake Washington.

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¹Of all the mountain masses and rugged snow peaks in the region described in this book, none will compare with the beautiful majestic cone of Mount Rainier (Pl. XXVII). This mountain giant is the dominating feature of this part of the Pacific slope. There may be other snow-clad peaks that seem to pierce the sky, such as Adams, Baker, and St. Helens, but these are dwarfed beside the mighty symmetrical cone of Rainier.

PLATE XXVII.—MOUNT RAINIER "MONARCH OF THE CASCADES," AS SEEN FROM THE BOULEVARD ON THE SHORE OF LAKE WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, WASH. This mighty volcanic cone rises 14,408 feet above tidewater and nearly 10,000 above the general level of the Cascade Range. Photograph copyrighted by Curtis & Miller, Seattle.

Mount Rainier (14,408 feet) is of about the same height as Pikes Peak, in Colorado (14,108 feet), or Mount Whitney, in California (14,502 feet), but it is superior in beauty to either, for it is not only a symmetrical cone but it can be seen from sea level and at close range, so that it stands out in all its massive grandeur. Mount Rainier when it comes into view from Tacoma, Seattle, or any other point along the winding channels of Puget Sound or from Lake Washington, reveals its full height, as there are no other peaks to obstruct the view or to detract from its commanding presence.

The early exploration of the Puget Sound region is a matter of some uncertainty and doubt. Apostolos Valerianus, an old Greek pilot in the service of Spain, better known by his Spanish sobriquet Juan de Fuca, claimed to have discovered the main entrance to the Sound about 1600, but grave doubt has been cast upon his narrative and many believe that his account was pure fiction. The first reliable account of the Sound was written by Capt. George Vancouver, of the British Royal Navy, who in 1792 mapped the Sound, named it after Peter Puget, one of his lieutenants, and also named many other natural features of the region, including Mount Rainier.

It is said that the original Indian name was Tacoma or Tahoma, meaning "big snow mountain," but Vancouver disregarded or did not know of the Indian usage and named the peak after Rear Admiral Rainier, of the British Navy. This name has been adopted by the United States Geographic Board. Nevertheless, there are many people who would gladly see the foreign name abandoned, even though usage has given it great weight, and the aboriginal name Tacoma revived.

Naturally, the high peaks of the Cascade attracted the attention of everyone who entered the region, and many were eager to scale them. The earliest record of mountain climbing was the ascent of Mount St. Helens in 1853. During the following year parties reached the summits of Mount Hood, in Oregon, and Mount Adams. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to climb Mount Baker, but not until 1868 did a party reach the top.

Lieut. A. V. Kautz made an almost successful ascent of Mount Rainier in 1857, reaching within 1,000 feet of the summit. His trip, however, proved to be very important, for he established the existence of glaciers here, which up to that time had not been known in this country. The first expedition to reach the top of the mountain was that of Gen. Hazard Stevens and P. V. Van Trump, who attained the summit on August 17, 1870. In the same year S. F. Emmons and A. D. Wilson, at that time members of the Fortieth Parallel Survey, made a brief study of the geology of the mountain and of the glaciers on its side and reached the top October 17, just two months after it had been attained by Stevens and Van Trump. Since that time numerous ascents have been made, and each year the trip is gaining in popularity, especially since the mountain and some of the adjacent territory has been set aside as the Mount Rainier National Park. The base of the mountain can easily be reached from either Seattle or Tacoma, and the views obtained on such a trip will amply repay anyone for the journey.

Mount Rainier, like Mounts Adams, St. Helens, and Baker, and Glacier Peak, is a great volcanic cone built upon the summit of the Cascade Range by successive layers of material thrown out of its crater. The great height of these peaks has not been materially reduced by erosion, for the time since their formation has not been long enough to permit very effective work by the elements. Steam escapes from most of these old volcanoes, showing that the rocks are still hot at some distance below the surface. It is noted in the records of old Fort Vancouver, on Columbia River, that Mount St. Helens emitted smoke and ashes since the establishment of that post. The recent activity of Lassen Peak, in northern California, which is situated on the same general range of mountains, is another indication that volcanic activity in this-region is not quite extinct.

The heights of the great volcanic peaks of Washington are as follows: Mount St. Helens, 9,697 feet; Glacier Peak, 10,436 feet; Mount Baker, 10,750 feet; Mount Adams, 12,307 feet; and Mount Rainier, 14,408 feet.

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Although Capt. Vancouver mapped and named Puget Sound in 1792, there was no permanent settlement or even trading post in the region until 1833, when Fort Nisqually was built by the Hudson's Bay Co. on the ground now occupied by the city of Tacoma. This post was for many years, even up to the time it was purchased by the United States Government in 1869, the leading commercial place on the Sound and was surpassed only on the northwest coast by Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, which was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Co.

Capt. Wilkes, when on his exploring expedition of 1840, landed at Fort Nisqually and sent a party inland to explore the country tributary to the Sound and to Columbia River. One party traveled southward and explored the Willamette (Wil-lam'et) Valley of Oregon, and another, under Lieut. R. W. Johnson, on May 29, 1840, crossed the Cascade Mountains by way of Naches Pass. This seems to have been the earliest passage by white men across the Cascades. At that time it was only an Indian trail, but in 1853 a road was cleared so that emigrants over the old Oregon Trail could make a short cut to the Sound instead of having to keep to the south along Columbia River.

The first settlement in the vicinity of Seattle was made at Alki Point in 1851. This was named New York, to which somebody facetiously added the Chinook word "alki," meaning "by and by." On February 15, 1852, the claims which became the town site of Seattle were staked, but up to 1860 there were not more than 20 families in the town. The town of Tacoma was laid out in 1872, and since that date there has been the most intense though friendly rivalry between the two places.

The Puget Sound basin lies in what is called the moist district of Washington. It has an annual precipitation of 25 to 60 inches, three-fourths of which occurs in the "wet season," from November to April. It is therefore intermediate between the extremely wet country of the coast, having an annual precipitation of 60 to 120 inches, and the dry belt east of the Cascade Mountains, where the annual precipitation is only 8 or 10 inches. The Puget Sound region is regarded by many unfamiliar with it as a region of excessive rainfall, but the figures given by the Weather Bureau show that the precipitation here is about the same as in southern Ohio. The mean annual temperature of Seattle for December, 1894, to December, 1903, was 52°. The maximum for that time was 96° and the minimum 3°.

Although the great forests that have made this part of the north westcoast famous are fast disappearing, lumbering continues to be the chief industry along the Sound, and millions of feet of lumber are each year sent east by the railways or shipped by vessel to various parts of the world.

Seattle has one of the finest deep-water harbors on the coast. As shown by the sketch map of Elliott Bay on sheet 27, the water deepens rapidly to 100 feet and then the depth increases gradually and some what irregularly to 600 feet where the bay opens into the Sound.

The harbor facilities of Seattle and its position near the Strait of Juan de Fuca and also the inland passage to the north have made it the most advantageous place on the northwest coast for the center of the Alaskan trade and also for a large part of the oriental commerce to the United States.