ank of the Snoqualmie River, about a mile above the
falls. The whole country hereabouts is picturesque, and interesting in
many ways, and well worthy a visit by tourists passing through the Sound
region, since it is now accessible by rail from Seattle.

Looking now at the forests in a comprehensive way, we find in passing
through them again and again from the shores of the Sound to their upper
limits, that some portions are much older than others, the trees much
larger, and the ground beneath them strewn with immense trunks in every
stage of decay, representing several generations of growth, everything
about them giving the impression that these are indeed the "forests
primeval," while in the younger portions, where the elevation of the
ground is the same as to the sea level and the species of trees are the
same as well as the quality of the soil, apart from the moisture which
it holds, the trees seem to be and are mostly of the same age, perhaps
from one hundred to two or three hundred years, with no gray-bearded,
venerable patriarchs--forming tall, majestic woods without any
grandfathers.

When we examine the ground we find that it is as free from those mounds
of brown crumbling wood and mossy ancient fragments as are the growing
trees from very old ones. Then perchance, we come upon a section farther
up the slopes towards the mountains that has no trees more than fifty
years old, or even fifteen or twenty years old. These last show plainly
enough that they have been devastated by fire, as the black, melancholy
monuments rising here and there above the young growth bear witness.
Then, with this fiery, suggestive testimony, on examining those sections
whose trees are a hundred years old or two hundred, we find the same
fire records, though heavily veiled with mosses and lichens, showing
that a century or two ago the forests that stood there had been swept
away in some tremendous fire at a time when rare conditions of drouth
made their burning possible. Then, the bare ground sprinkled with the
winged seed from the edges of the burned district, a new forest sprang
up, nearly every tree starting at the same time or within a few years,
thus producing the uniformity of size we find in such places; while, on
the other hand, in those sections of ancient aspect containing very old
trees both standing and fallen, we find no traces of fire, nor from the
extreme dampness of the ground can we see any possibility of fire ever
runn