f 
THE NORTHERN 
PACIFIC ROUTE. 
193 
The White River valley is largely given up to truck farming and 
dairying. The dairying industry centers about Kent, where there 
is a large plant for the manufacture of condensed 
Kent. 
Elevation 53 feet. 
Population 1,908. 
St. Paul 1,888 miles. 
milk. On the left (west) are the lines of the Oregon- 
Washington Railroad & Navigation Co., the St. Paul 
road, and the Interurban Electric Co.; on the right 
the town of Renton, perched partly on the hillside, 
about 2 miles distant. 
This is another coal-mining town—in fact, 
coal mining is the chief business in many parts of the country back 
from the Sound. Renton is nearer tidewater than the other mining 
towns of the State, and the coal mined here has a fine reputation in 
the cities on the Sound as a clean fuel for domestic use.' 
Between mileposts 11 and 10 the Black River branch on the right 
leads to Renton and other towns in that direction, and at milepost 
10 the Renton branch of the interurban trolley line crosses the St. 
Paul road and then crosses Black River, which is the outlet of Lake 
Washineton. 
Beyond the crossing of Black River the railway is at 
the foot of the bluffs on the right side of the valley, and the hillside 
cuts expose, in several places, sandstone and shale (Puget group), 
but no coal beds occur in this part of the formation. This part of the 
valley is known as the Duwamish Valley. At its lower end the stream 
is actively engaged in filling the bay with the sediment which it car- 
ries. ‘The work of the stream has been supplemented in recent years 
by civic activity in cutting down some of Seattle’s hills and in reduc- 
ing the grades in the business part of the city. On some of the streets 
the grade was lowered as much as 30 feet, and on others there was a 
corresponding fill. As the material on which the city is built is glacial 
drift, steam shovels were largely used for the excavation, but the 
methods used in hydraulic mining were employed to get rid of the 
large hill upon which the old Washington Hotel was situated. The rail- 
way crosses the wide tidal flats, which are being more and more utilized 
for business purposes, and reaches the Union Station at Seattle. 
: Renton. is one of the oldest coal- 
mining centers of this part of the country, 
to the quality of the coal, for that is of a 
much lower rank than those already 
described, but it is probably due to the 
nearness to tidewater, the cleanness of 
the coal, and its suitability for domestic 
use, 
Two coal beds are worked, and, like 
most of the other coal beds of this region, 
they are not lying flat, but dip at an 
angle of ee: 12° to the southeast. Th 
95558°—Bull. 611—15——13 
coal is brought to the mato through a a 
slope on one of the beds, and a rock tun- 
nel in the mine connects with the other. 
Each bed is over 8 feet thick every- 
where, but this is not all merchantable 
The average heating value of the 
and 10,060 
coal, 
coal of these tv 
British thermal units. 
143 FP O68 
Roslyn and Ravensdale. 
