SHASTA ROUTE SEATTLE TO SATT F'RANCTSCO. 21 



glacier found an outlet dowm this valley as far as Centralia and 

 thence went northwestward by way of the Chchalis River vaQey. 



Centralia, about a mile above the mouth of the Skookumchuck, is 

 an important railway junction and the center of a large lumber 



industry. The town is also becoming a coal-mining 

 Centralia* center^ and much attention is given to dairying and 



Elevation 18S feet, to the growdug of Small fruits, espcciall}' strawberries. 

 LTtSSmS The coal-bearing rocks, of Eocene age^^ie east of the 



town. The beds to the west (Astoria shale) arc Oli- 

 gocene, and are succeeded by still younger formations toward the 

 coast. 



Below Centralia the Skookumchuck enters the broad valley of the 

 Chehalis, a river which drains a section of the Cascade Range and 

 flows across the Coast Range to the Pacific at Grays Harbor. Two 

 railway lines^ a branch of the Northern Pacific and a line of the 

 Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co., connect Centralia 

 with the coast by way of Chehalis Valley. 



Chehalis is the center of a large dair34ng district and has a 

 condensed-milk factory. A branch line runs west from this place to 



South Bend, The State Training School stands on 

 Chehalis, a terrace formed by gravel with soft decomposed 



Elevation 188 feet. pebblcs, which is w^ell exposcd in several street cut- 

 Popuiation 4 507. ^| ^ blocks wcst of the railwav station and 



Seattle 95 miles, o ^ -J 



at many other points farther dowm Chehalis River, 

 especially at Satsop. These gravels w^ere deposited during the early 

 part of the Pleistocene epoch by the floods from the melting glaciers- 

 South of Chehalis the river is joined by Newaukum River. The 

 valley at their confluence is broad and fertile and contains many 

 thriving farms, chiefly on the left, A group of yellow monkey flower 

 CMimulus) brightens the wayside in spring and summer, Otl 

 plants Hkely to attract attention are the tliimbleberry, with its 

 white blossoms; the salmonberry, with its yellow fruit; the pink 

 fireweed; the white, plumose, gracefully pendant ocean spray, 

 or arrowwood (SencotJieca discolor, PL V^ p. 17); and other forms 

 growing among larger plants on the wooded slopes. In the more 

 open ground the almost omnipresent dandehon in June, with its 

 fluffy crowTis of seeds, the purple lupine, the red and white clover, 

 the white yarrow, and a host of other flowers give the beauty of 

 varied coloring to the views in this forest land. 



From Seattle to Portland the great forests of Washington are 

 almost continuous. The exceptions are the so-called prairies of the 

 outwash gravel plains; the great stretches, bristling with the black- 

 ened trunk of many a forest monarch, which the lumbermen leave 

 m their wake; and the long alluvial valleys wliich the farmer has 

 cleared and tills. Alder and maple are the usual successors to the 

 firs in the valleys. 



