3
as our steamer glides through the dusk of a summer night, and brings us back by morning to Seattle.
The real country tributary to the Queen City lies to the north on the east shore of the Sound. The first river falling into the Sound north of Seattle is the Snohomish, formed by the junction of the Snoqualmie and the Skykomish Rivers, about twentyfive miles northwest of Snoqualmie Falls. The tourist can take the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad, and by a branch reach Snohomish City in about an hour and a half, or can take a steamboat to that place.
There is little to catch the eye of the traveller in the region traversed by the railroad. It is a scene of newly-opened forest with new settlements, such as we have seen so frequently, and must continue to see wherever we go in the lower Sound country except on some of the islands. This is the case because the chief and most profitable pursuits of the people hitherto have been logging for the great mills, growing hay and vegetables on the rich bottom-lands, bee-culture, and cattle-raising. More recently they have taken to lumbering, and a good many mills have been erected in Snohomish Yalley. Snohomish City is a town of three thousand inhabitants, located near the head of navigation by steamboat on the river. It is well situated on the north bank, with several hotels, three churches, a scientific society and museum, a fifteen-thousand-dollar school-house, two dozen stores, a more than average number of professional men even for a county-seat, and other signs of an intelligent population. Here and in the vicinity are half a dozen large saw-mills, five shingle-mills, three sash-, door-, blind-, and moulding-factories, and many logging-camps. The export trade of Snohomish River is of the value of two million dollars annually, while the local trade between farmers, loggers, other people, and the merchants exceeds that sum. It is estimated that the improvements of 1890 will be of the value of one million dollars, and will include a court-house and a theatre. The Snohomish Agricultural Society and Turf Club will make a speed-track near Lake Blackman, for the exhibition of blooded horses; from all of which it is evident that the people of Snohomish are'progressive.
Machias is a new town located on the Pillchuck, a branch
