Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/820

SEATTLE. of the State University and of Fort Lawton. The annual appropriation for the maintenance of parks is about $60,000. Edifices of importance are the city hall, county court-house, the high school, Providence Hospital, and the seven buildings of the (q.v.). The Federal Government has purchased for $150,000 land on which to erect a $750,000 building for its various departments. A public library building ($200,000), the gift of Andrew Carnegie, is in course of construction (1903), the site having been acquired by the city at a cost of $100,000. The Public Library contains some 40,000 volumes.

Commercially and industrially, Seattle is one of the foremost cities of the Pacific Coast. It has valuable fisheries and a tributary region rich in timber and in mineral and agricultural resources. The opening of the Alaskan gold fields, for which the city is a popular sailing point, and the development of trade with the Orient, especially with the Philippines since the Spanish-American War, have contributed to the remarkable growth of the city in recent years. The waterway connecting Puget Sound with Lakes Union and Washington, which is now under construction by the Federal Government, will add much to its shipping advantages. The project contemplates the creation of a canal, nearly eight miles long and of sufficient depth for the largest merchant and war vessels, leading to the fine fresh-water harbor afforded by Lake Washington. The value of Seattle's trade by sea in 1901 was $45,596,067, including goods to the amount of $6,958,613 carried to Japan by a single line. In that year shipments by water included some 25,000,000 feet of lumber, 470,000 tons of coal, 88,000 bales of cotton, 1,214,000 bushels of wheat, and 475,000 barrels of flour. Large quantities of beer, meats, fruit, hay, oats, and manufactured goods are also exported. Seattle is one of the chief ports of the country for the receipt and shipment of gold and silver. The Federal Government in 1898 established an assay office here. Lumber and shingles constitute the principal shipments by rail to Eastern markets.

Manufacturing interests, too, are of importance. In the census year 1900, $10,132,000 capital was invested in the various industries, which had a production valued at $26,373,000. The manufacture of lumber, slaughtering and meat-packing, flour-milling, fish canning and preserving, the manufacture of foundry and machine shop products and bridge work, ship and boat building, the roasting and grinding of coffee and spices, bottling, and the manufacture of confectionery, dairy products, furniture, and carriages, are the leading industries. Electric power, used in Seattle for manufacturing and other purposes, is derived from Snoqualmie Falls, on the river of the same name, 24 miles from the city. The falls are 270 feet high, with water power at high water estimated at 100,600 horse power, and at low water 30,000 horse power. The Puget Sound Naval Station is at Port Orchard, 14 miles from Seattle. Here is a dock 650 feet long, constructed at a cost of more than $600,000.

The government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a common council, consisting of a single chamber. The administrative officers include a treasurer, comptroller, corporation counsel, boards of public works, health, parks, library, etc. The public school affairs are controlled by a board of education, separate from the municipality. The water-works, which cost $2,500,000, are owned by the city. The daily supply is 23,000,000 gallons. The reservoirs in the city have a storage capacity of 50,000,000 gallons. The municipal water revenues in 1901 were $227,000. The city is engaged (1903) in the installation of an electric plant to cost $550,000.

First settled in 1852, Seattle was laid out in 1853 and named after a noted Indian chief. In 1856 it was unsuccessfully attacked by the Indians. The business portion was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1889, the loss aggregating about $10,000,000. The population in 1870 was 1107, and in 1880, 3533; in 1890, 42,837; in 1900, 80,671.  SEA-URCHIN. The name applied to species of the echinoderm class Echinoidea. The sea-urchin of the coast north of Cape Cod (Echinus or Strongylocentrotus Drobachiensis) is common among rocks, ranging from low-water mark to fifty or more fathoms. It eats seaweeds, and is also a scavenger, feeding on dead fish and the like. Certain kinds are known to bore for a little way into limestone rocks or coral reefs, where they are protected from the waves. Sea-urchins have scattered over the surface, among the spines, microscopic button-like bodies called sphæridia, which are thought to be organs probably of taste or smell. They evidently react to odors. The eggs are numerous and small. After hatching the young sea-urchin enters the free-swimming larval or pluteus stage, passing through a complicated metamorphosis. On the other hand, certain forms (Anochanus Sinensis) have a direct development, the larval stage being suppressed. A Chilean form and also a South Pacific species of Hemiaster carry their young in brood-pouches, and they also directly develop, for no pluteus sea-urchin larvae were captured by the Challenger expedition in the Southern Ocean. The large sea-urchin of the Mediterranean is an article of food, and the Indians of the northwest coast eat the large local species. See ; .  SEAWEED or SEAWARE. In a wide sense, any plant of the class Algæ; in a more restricted sense, only plants of this class which live in the sea. The term is also applied to any plant growing in the sea. Several species are edible, the most important of these being Irish or carrageen moss, used as a cattle food and also in the preparation of jellies (blanc mange and similar dishes). Dulse, or dillesk, and kelp, or tangle, are also used to a limited extent as human food.

Eel grass has been used in filling mattresses, cushions, etc., and in sheathing houses. Seaweed ashes formerly supplied much of the alkali used in soap and glass making and for the preparation of iodine. (See .) As a rule, however, cheaper sources of most of the materials furnished by seaweed have been discovered. The principal use of seaweed is as a manure, for which purpose it is extensively employed on many coasts, some of the best farms of New England being maintained largely by the use of seaweed. Exact data as to the quantity used are not available. The use of seaweed as a manure is confined to a narrow strip of coast because the material is very bulky (contains from 70 to 90 per cent. of water), and consequently cannot be profitably transported far. It has been carried