==========================+======+======+======+======+=======+ STATIONS. | Sept.| Oct. | Nov. | Dec. |TOTAL | | | | | |INCHES.| --------------------------+------+------+------+------+-------+ Bismarck, Dak. | 1.34 | 1.33 | 0.71 | 0.72 | 21.35 | Dayton, Wash. Terr. | 0.67 | 2.64 | 2.55 | 4.95 | 28.02 | Denver, Colorado | 0.96 | 0.79 | 0.74 | 0.71 | 14.97 | Lewiston, Idaho | 0.52 | 1.93 | 1.66 | 3.40 | 17.11 | New Haven, Conn. | 4.15 | 3.85 | 4.15 | 3.38 | 51.55 | Norfolk, Virginia | 5.23 | 3.96 | 3.58 | 3.80 | 52.14 | Olympia, Wash. Terr. | 2.98 | 5.60 | 8.16 |10.17 | 62.81 | Portland, Oregon | 1.62 | 4.95 | 7.34 | 8.27 | 54.16 | San Diego, Cal. | 0.05 | 0.40 | 0.70 | 2.12 | 9.40 | Sandusky, Ohio | 3.54 | 3.50 | 3.68 | 2.97 | 41.43 | San Francisco, Cal. | 0.15 | 1.13 | 2.70 | 4.72 | 23.32 | Sitka, Alaska | 9.97 | 9.33 |11.87 |12.87 | 97.28 | Spokane Falls, Wash. Terr.| 1.14 | 2.90 | 2.22 | 2.06 | 21.19 | Washington City | 4.42 | 3.00 | 2.84 | 2.92 | 42.56 | ==========================+======+======+======+======+=======+ _b._ ALLUVIUM. This includes the transported matter of the bottom-lands, the swales, and the tidal flats. Here we have humus, not only as a top-dressing, but also intermixed, and sometimes constituting a large proportion of the soil for a considerable depth. No land could be richer than this, and its relative proportion to the whole is larger than would be inferred even from the great number of streams, for it includes the lowlands about Puget Sound and the lakes. The mountain streams have, with some exceptions, but little alluvial land. There are areas of swale, or wet bottom-lands, which may be drained to advantage. The tidal flats along the Sound are peculiarly fertile, because enriched by both vegetable and animal matter, including calcareous shells and fish bones. Owing to this great fertility, and the ease with which large areas are reclaimed by dykes, their convenience to transportation, and, it may be added, the labor of clearing the forest lands, the work of dyking these flats has been commenced, especially in Snohomish and Skagit counties, and it is thought that two hundred thousand acres may thus be redeemed from the water. Alluvial lands constitute but a small feature in East Washington.