Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-06-10
NATURES GIGANTIC WORK


A Region Whore she Does Every Thing ON
. Big Scale.
There must have been q time In the
remote past when the Puget Sound basin
was covered with q growth which for
rank luxuriance would put to blush any
thing that grows here now. The old
mossbackers Of the present day, the ad-
venturous spirits Of the last three de-
cades who pushed their way through al
most impenetrable wilds to settle here,
point with pride to the giant frs, tower
ing 800 feet high, and from 8 to 10 feet
through at the stumps, to the masses of
ferns Z and feet high, TO hop vines 40
feet in length, to oats that yield 100
bushels per acre, and ask what other
country on earth can show equal pro-
ductiveness. And yet this growth Of
to-day must be IS nothing compared with
that which grew here ages ago, and
formed the coal fields which are now be-
ginning to be prospected.
These fields are Of enormous extent.
In the basin Of the Cowlitz river, which
rises in Mount st. Helens, which Win
throp says was still an active volcano
when he was writing "Canoe and Sad
de-" there are over 10000 acres, so far
| untouched. In the Chehalis valley there
| are vast deposits still unexplored. In
| the Carbon river region there is one
| vast bed underlying three whole town
ships, one vein in which is "a feet thick,
| and in it o seam, SO feet thick, OF per
fectly pure coal.
In the Raging River, Snoqualmie,
| Skagit, Nooksac and Wenatchie basins
there are other vast deposits-how vast
| nobody yet knows. The railroad COM
pany now has eighteen men in the field
| prospecting these regions. This work
| in most cases is easy, as the beds crop
| out along the river banks and in the
walls of gulches and canons in many
places, and in some instances oan be
traced for miles without break.
General Alger, Of Michigan, and his
partners have a tract Of $4,000 acres of
timber in Skagit County, which there is
reason to believe is generally underlaid
| with a six-foot vein of coal of fairly good
| quality. These deposits extend on
into British Columbia, and are particu-
larly rich in Vancouver Island, large
part of which is underlaid by them.
| Nature seems always to have been at
hey most wonderful work hereabouts.
| Not many centuries ago she maintained
| row of lighthouses on this coast, the
| equal of which was never seen else
where. Their lights shine no more,
| however, and they now stand solemn
pinnacles of ice piercing the clouds.
They are Mounts Shasta, Hood, st.
Helens, Adams. Tacoma, Baker, and ST.
Elias, and range in height from IL, 225
to 1880 feet. All these are true
mountain peaks rising abruptly
almost from the sea level. Mos,
of them still emit hot steam
from their SUBMITS, and some Older
residents of the coast claim to have seer
an occasional jet of flame from Mount
Baker, but most people believe tha
while all were once active volcanoes they
are now practically extinct. They un
doubleday made things lively when they
were in the full blaze Of business.
The characteristics Of Puget Sound in
dictate that it was created by earth
quakes or volcanic action. Its primitive
feature is extreme depth. Its shore
are very abrupt Standing anywher
along the shore the visitor may easil,
toss pebble into 100 fathoms of water
The immense inlet, with its numerou
} arms, making a shore line of ], 900 miles
seems to have been rent open by
Titanic force which only the magma
ton of a Milton might describe. Com
pared with it, that which
Tore up by the roots Thessalian pines
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into the Euboic sea
was the mere play Of q child. In view
Of the wonders which have happened
here it is surprising that the doom
sealers have set apart no special calam
ity for our exclusive use. They seem t.
have overlooked an opportunity.-Ta
coma (WaSh.) Cor. N. Y. Sun.