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There is little difference in the aspect of the country as we proceed north through the basin described in the foregoing chapter. Sumner, named after the statesman Charles Sumner, is a small and pretty town in the midst of hop-fields. Slaughter, a little further on, is in a rich agricultural region, and appears to be prosperous. It is named after Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter, who was killed in this vicinity by Indians during the war of 1855. Kent is a place of considerable importance, about one hour's travel from Tacoma. There are fine woods all along, and hills in sight on one side or the other, showing that the valleys of the streams are narrow as they are rich. A little distance beyond Kent is Orillia, also in a good farming country.

Black River, full in spring-time, winds among meadows valuable for large hay-crops. Hyde Park is a suburb of Seattle, and seems given up to brickmaking at present, brick being in demand since the great fire which swept Seattle on the 6th of June, 1889. From Hyde Park to the city is a continuous suburban town. Indeed, the continuous settlements from the Puyallup to Elliot Bay struck me with surprise, knowing how recently towns began to appear upon the maps of this thickly-wooded region.

A dozen years ago I was in Seattle, and thought it the ugliest of places,—thought, in fact, that it would be impossible to redeem it from ugliness. The hills, rising sharply from the waterfront, which was narrow and disfigured with rude structures, were roughly terraced with streets running parallel to the bay, and which were cut at right angles by other streets, steep and by no means smooth, seemed to present hopeless obstacles to the development of beauty. Long before the summit of the ridge was reached the uncleared forest began, hemming in the town between water and woods. Along the business front was a mass of sawdust, the accumulation of many years, in which