# 
190 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
West of Ravensdale the railway pursues a westerly course, cross- 
ing under the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad and then follow- 
ing in a general way a slight depression in the drift without any 
marked features of relief. 
Beyond Covington the valley deepens and becomes more restricted, 
and the railway cuts show that the valley has been excavated in a 
thick deposit of glacial gravel. This material, 
Covington. known as the Orting gravel, was deposited by 
Rieration 36h foots trope flowing from the ice front of the Admiralty 
0) on 
St. Paul 1, oH pom 
arther north. 
glacier (see p. 192) after it had retreated to a position 
f 
At milepost 102 is the State fish hatchery, which supplies fish fry 
for many of the streams on this side of the mountains. 
Soon after 
passing this point the train crosses Green River and is once more ina 
large and varied flora of not less than 
2,500 species of the so-called higher plants 
alone. As these soil and climatic condi- 
tions vary from place to place, there are 
many sharp, almost abrupt changes in the 
character of the vegetation. rite the 
Cascade Range, although only 
7,000 feet high, constitutes an mathe’ 
barrier which relatively few plants are 
able to cross. On the east side of the 
mountains there is an arid transition area 
where the sagebrush plains of Columbia 
River give way to the slightly higher, 
ered zone known as the 
- posed 
mainly of the yellow or bull pine, with 
such undershrubs as the pinebark, buck- 
brush, roses, and a tall huckleberry. 
On the western slope of the Cascades 
the change i in the character of the vegeta- 
ominant forest tree 
of oak growing in the State, as well as the 
black pine and, until the middle of July, 
a carpet of brilliant flowers. 
The fossil flora of this = found 
in more or less close association 
with the numerous coal beds, was also an 
exceedingly rich and diverse one, num-_ 
bering, as at present understood, about 
350 species, with the probability that it 
may reach 400 or 500 species when fully 
known. Not a single a of these fossil 
species is now known to be living, al- 
though many of them beltug & gener 
make up the present flora. In view of 
the so-called accident of preservation, it 
is probable that the total fossil flora may 
have equaled the living flora in number 
of 
species 
The almost complete change in the 
character of the flora bereniad the Puget 
epoch (Eocene) is well y the coni- 
fers. This group is now dominant in con- 
spicuousness and number of individuals, 
whereas in Puget time it was almost neg- 
ligible, being represented by only three 
kind ress, cedar, and juniper—and 
these very ~ scarce that less than twenty 
udpaliGd 
mens have been “Gbecrved: Another 
marked difference between the two floras 
is shown by the presence of palms in the 
Puget flora. Two very distinct kinds of 
palms have been found, one with rather 
small, feather-like leaves, and a huge fan 
palm, with leaves that must have been at — 
