TRAMPING IN WESTERN WASHINGTON. 
BY THOMAS H. MACBRIDE. 
The prosperity of our extreme northwestern commonwealth is largely 
dependent upon the products of its primeval forests. The present notes 
are intended to convey some impression of the present condition of the 
forest vegetation of western Washington as observed by a passing trav- 
eler during the winter of 1912-13. 
For purposes of natural-history-study the great state of Washington 
presents several very distinct biologic regions. Of these, three deter- 
mined mainly by topography, lie west of the Cascade mountains. These 
as delineated by Professor C. V. Piper, are the Pacific coastal plain, 
the Olympic mountains, and the Puget Sound basin. 
The present discussion concerns chiefly the region around Puget Sound, 
not excluding however occasional reference to the western slopes of the 
Cascades. 
All biologic conditions depend so completely upon moisture that our 
survey may well be introduced by reference to the remarkable meteor- 
ology of the case, a meteorology I believe unique, at least within the 
limits of the United States. 
In popular parlance two seasons obtain in western Washington; the 
wet and the dry. But whatever this may signify in other parts of the 
globe so conditioned, in Washington the dry season is not without 
showers, sometimes for several days together, and the wet winter is by 
no means without many sunny, beautiful days. 
About Puget Sound the rainfall is very peculiar. It is commonly 
reported that the precipitation here is very great, and that heavy forests 
are associated with the fact; but such is not quite the case. Precipita- 
tion over western Washington is extremely uneven; varies between 30 
inches or less and 120 or more! Thus west of the Olympic mountains 
along the ocean the rainfall is reported as attaining sometimes 130 inches 
in a single 12-month ; at Olympia it is about 50 and at Seattle 30 ; while 
on the south end of Whidby Island, nearly in the middle of Puget Sound, 
the rainfall is so slight that the region is a desert, with cacti and all 
sorts of xerophytic plants. 
