Puget sound holds a leading position in the United States in the magnitude of its logging operations. The quantity of logs put into the water in 1888 was four hundred and thirty-four million five hundred thousand feet. Logging is carried on to the best advantage in the summer time, and logging railroads, sometimes several miles in length, upon which locomotives draw cars of logs from the interior to the sound, or to streams connecting with it, have been built by a number of companies at great expense. In the huge size of the timber, the logger of the west finds an obstacle to contend with that the logger of the Michigan pineries does not encounter. Logs of six feet in diameter are frequent, while they occasionally much exceed that figure. Ox teams generally consist of six pairs of lusty animals, which are used to drag the logs to the railroad or stream. In cutting down this huge timber, the choppers use a novel device to avoid cutting through the swell near the ground. A notch several inches deep is cut in the side of the tree, and the end of a spring board, having an iron shoe, is put into the notch in such a way that it is bound fast by the weight of the chopper when he stands on it. If the first notch is not high enough, another is cut higher up. By this method the stumps left standing are from six to twelve feet high. When the tree is very large, two choppers work at a time, as shown in the engraving on the opposite page. [Illustration: LOGGING SCENES.] GENERAL OFFICES OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. At the edge of the bluff overlooking the harbor, and at the head of the grade leading down to the water front, stands the elegant, commodious building used for the general offices of the Northern Pacific. It is a most substantial structure of brick and iron, cemented on the exterior walls, having a basement, three stories and an attic, with asbestos felt under each floor, and was completed in the fall of 1888 at a total cost of $125,000.00. In all, the building contains fifty-three office and store rooms, and nineteen commodious fire-proof vaults, one being connected with every suite of rooms. It is heated by hot water, and the interior finishing and furnishing is very elegant and ornamental. In addition to the offices of the Northern Pacific, the building will be occupied by the western office of the land department of the N. P. R. R., managed by Mr. Paul Schulze, the Tacoma Land Company, Mr. Isaac W. Anderson, manager, the Northern Pacific Coal Company, and the Northern Pacific Express Company. This elegant and imposing structure, occupying such a commanding site, will always be one of the most striking architectural features of the city, proclaiming to the world the confidence the officers of the Northern Pacific have in the future of the great city springing up at its western terminus. [Illustration: GENERAL OFFICE BUILDING N.P.R.R.] TACOMA’S FINE BUSINESS BLOCKS.