higher central portion of the Olympics. As far as known, the Cretaceous age is but little represented among the sedimentary rocks of the state. The oldest and probably the best known locality is that of Sucia Island and a few other small adjoining islands of the San Juan group lying between the Island of Vancouver and the mainland. These rocks have been designated the Vancouver formation, because of their splendid development upon the island of that name. The Tertiary rocks have been studied for a number of years, and beyond doubt are the best known rocks of the state. They are of great economic importance because they contain large deposits of coal and valuable ledges of building stone. As was the case in other parts of the United States, Tertiary time in Washington was characterized by the presence of many lakes in which sediments of great thickness were deposited. In the early part of Tertiary time, or during the Eocene epoch, vegetation grew with great luxuriance about the lake shores, and upon the lake floors vegetal matter was deposited in thick beds between the layers of sand and clay. After an average accumulation in these lakes of several thousand feet of mechanical sediments and vegetable matter the strata were folded, elevated and sometimes faulted, the vegetable accumulations were compressed and metamorphosed and converted into coal seams. These lakes had their best development west of the Cascades, along the eastern side of the present Puget Sound basin, but in this region the Tertiary sedimentary rocks have been largely covered by lava flows from the mountains nearby and by the sediments of the great glaciers which later passed over them. The Eocene rocks have received more study than those of the Miocene and Pliocene epochs because of their economic importance. The Eocene rocks of Washington are nearly all coal-bearing, and their areas have been more thoroughly examined in connection with the development of the coal mines of the state. These areas are in some instances very small and the thickness of the rocks is not great. In other cases, as in the Blue Canyon coal field, an area of more than 360 miles is represented, and the rocks are not less than 10,000 feet in thickness." The coal fields of the Puget Sound region will be referred to hereafter, as well as its deposits of precious metals, iron and other resources of a mineral character. Perhaps a more definite understanding of the topographic or physiographical character of the Puget Sound basin may be obtained by the following paragraphs, which are taken from Bailey Willis's Report to the United States Geological Bureau, upon "Some Coal Fields of Puget Sound": "The water bodies of Puget Sound occupy deep and steep-sided channels in an elevated expanse of gravelly deposits, which is further divided by valleys that were formerly arms of the Sound, but which are now filled with alluvium. The escarpment of the gravelly plateaus rises from 200 to 300 feet above the waters of the Sound and the alluvial plains of its former branches. The surfaces of the plateaus present a great variety of smooth and hummocky levels, supporting occasional rounded hills one hundred feet or more in height. All the aspects of the district are characteristic of forms modeled by extensive glaciers. The individual features assumed their forms either on top of ice which has melted or as morainic ridges in front of glaciers, or beneath ice sheets of whose lower surfaces they present the casts. In the vicinity of the Sound these gravel deposits are deep, extending below sea level probably several hundred feet, and even at distances of twenty to thirty miles eastward. Along the foothills of the Cascade Range they are known to cover the older rocks locally to depths of 300 to 400 feet. They thus determine the topographic aspects of a wide area, almost obliterating the configuration of the solid-rock surface upon which they rest. From the bluffs about the Sound the plateaus rise toward the mountains by terraces, which are often disposed irregularly with reference to existing streams, but in a general way extend about the higher tracts between the rivers. Within these higher areas the deposit of gravel is thin or locally wanting above the older rocks. The canyons cut by the principal rivers flowing from the Cascades and Mount Rainier also expose the underlying strata, and they may be seen in occasional isolated outcrops in the gravelly expanse nearer the Sound. Valleys, canyons and hills older than the present ones lie buried beneath the gravel deposits. They are so concealed that no clear conception of their distribution can be formed, but their relatively bold character is indicated by a few facts. "In the vicinity of Renton, and between that town and Seattle, sharply defined hills of hard rock rise like islands from the alluvium of the Duwamish valley. The former canyon, now filled almost to the summits of buttes along its course, is inferred to have been deep and steep-sided. At Burnett, twenty miles from tidewater and 335 feet above it, a gangway, driven on a coal vein two hundred feet below the outcrops, passed into a channel filled with gravel and tree roots. At Wilkeson a similar buried. channel was encountered in a water level gangway 2,250 feet from the entrance and 250 feet below the level of the overlying gravel terrace. This preglacial topography is of much interest as a phase of the history of the Sound basin, and it is economically important as a factor which modifies the amount of coal available above any given level. It sometimes introduces difficulties in mining. The topographic surface of the gravel deposits bears no definite relation to that of the Coal Measures." What countless ages were required by the forces of Nature, with all their ceaseless activity, and working under the direction of a beneficent Providence, to bring this magnificent region to its present state of physical perfection for the uses and purposes of man in his high stage of moral, industrial and intellectual development as reached at the beginning of the twentieth century! CHAPTER II. FLORA AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 2. Of the topography of the Puget Sound Country it is difficult to speak in terms of moderation. All writers on the subject early or late concur in this opinion. Of this country, when first discovered and explored by Vancouver in 1792, he wrote: "To describe the beauties of this region. will on some future occasion be a very grateful task to the pen of the skilful panegyrist. The serenity of the climate, the innumerable pleasing landscapes and the abundant fertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only to be enriched by the industry of man with villages, mansions, cottages and other lovely buildings, to render it the most lovely country that can be imagined, while the labor of the inhabitants must be rewarded in the bounties which nature seems ready to bestow on cultivation." If this language may seem extravagant, we may quote" from the official report for 1901 of I. C. Russell, of the United States Geological Bureau, who made a personal and scientific investigation of this region, and among other things reported as follows: "The mild, equable temperature and the abundant moisture of the Puget Sound region favor the growth of vegetation, and the entire land area from tidewater to an elevation of about 7,000 feet, except where the slopes are too precipitous, is clothed with a splendid forest of giant trees. This belt of forest adjacent to the Pacific begins at the south, in California, and extends to southern Alaska. It is the most magnificent forest in North America, and one that demands far more space from both a geological and geographical point of view than can be given it at this time. 'The great forest' extends up the western slope of the Cascades, through the lower passes and far down the larger valleys on the eastern or sunny side. Its grandeur, in an artistic sense, is beyond description, and can be fully appreciated only by one who abides for weeks or months in its perpetual twilight. Great fir trees, rising from 150 to 250, and even 300 feet above the ground, stand in closed ranks, their rugged trunks from six to eight or ten feet, and even more, in diameter, shaggy with mosses, lichens of many subdued tints of brown, green and yellow. Mingled with the giant firs are equally massive cedars, although of lower stature. The cedars are frequently twenty-five or thirty feet in circumference near the ground, but taper rapidly from a deeply fluted base to a sharp spinelike top. These great trees do not form groves, or detached clumps, as in the forested regions of less humid lands, but stand thickly together |