the Cascades and the Columbia River is described as Central Washington, and the portion east of the river as Eastern Washington. The summits of several of the volcanic cones are covered with perpetual snow, and the glaciers which fill their upper slopes rival in beauty the Alpine ice-rivers of Switzerland. Western Washington, which comprises about one-third of the state, is a mountainous region interspersed with numerous fertile valleys. The Coast Range to the west of the Cascades extends in broken and disorderly masses from the southern border of the state along the Pacific coast to Cape Flattery at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The mountains of this range increase in height toward the north, where they are known as the Olympic Mountains. Mount Olympus, the loftiest summit, is 8138 feet high, The coast is abrupt, except at Shoalwater Bay and Gray's Harbour, and many short and rapid streams flow down the western slopes directly into the ocean. The tide-water basin at the mouth of the Columbia River and the Chehalis valley, farther north, are the most important indentations of the coast south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This body of water, together with the extensive inland sea known as Puget Sound, affords some of the best harbours in the world, and is of great commercial importance. Puget Sound has a coastline of more than 1000 miles, and receives the waters of numerous rivers. Central Washington is a lofty plateau region, its surface, like that of Eastern Washington, largely covered with lava and other volcanic products. It is traversed by spurs of the Cascade Mountains, and exhibits many abrupt changes of elevation. The Yakima River and other tributaries of the Columbia have carved deep valleys in the plateau. The streams are broken by falls and rapids, presenting a succession of varied and picturesque scenery. East of the Columbia the plateaus and plains are cut by the valleys of Clark's Fork and the Spokane and Snake rivers. In the north-east the surface is diversified by spurs of the Pend d'Oreille Mountains, and in the south-east the highest elevations belong to the Blue Mountains, which extend into the state from Oregon. The whole of the eastern part of the state and a portion of the region west of the Cascades are drained by the Columbia River, which for a distance of nearly 300 miles forms the boundary between this state and Oregon. In Western Washington, especially in the vicinity of Puget Sound, the winters are very mild. The rainfall is heavier than in any other portion of the United States. East of the Cascades the winters are colder and the rainfall lighter. The warm ocean current which bathes its western shores gives, however, to the whole state a climate much milder than that prevailing in sections to the east which have the same latitude. Lumbering is one of the leading pursuits. Western Washington is heavily wooded. Many of the trees are of enormous size, and in the density of their growth some of the forests are scarcely surpassed by those of the tropics. The soil is exceedingly fertile in many sections of the state. Portions of Central and Eastern Washington are well adapted for wheat-growing and grazing. There are extensive coalfields around Puget Sound, and coalmining is an important industry. The fisheries along the coast, and the salmon-canneries on the Columbia River, are of considerable value.

Washington was first organised as a territory in 1853, with an area much greater than that of the present state. It was reduced to its present limits in 1863, and was admitted to the Union as a state in 1889. The state has thirty-four counties. Olympia, the capital, is situated at the head of Puget Sound. Seattle and Tacoma farther north

on the eastern shore of Puget Sound, and Spokane Falls on the Spokane River, are the largest towns. Other places of importance are Walla Walla, Port Townsend, and Fairhaven. Pop. (1870) 23,955; (1880) 75,116; (1890) 349,390.

Washington is the name of over 200 cities, towns, townships, villages, and hamlets in the United States, of which the largest, after the federal capital, are (1) the capital of Daviess county, Indiana, 173 miles by rail W. of Cincinnati, with coal-mines near by, and a pop. of 6064; (2) the capital of Fayette county, Ohio, 77 miles by rail ENE. of Cincinnati, with a pop. of 5742; and (3) the capital of Washington county, Pennsylvania, 31 miles by rail SW. of Pittsburgh, with many mills and cigar-factories, coal-mines, and exports of wool, and containing the Washington and Jefferson College (Presbyterian; founded 1802). Pop. 7063.

Copyright 1892 in U.S. by J. B. Lippincott Company.

Washington, RULES OF. See NEUTRALITY. Washington City, the capital of the United States, is situated in the District of Columbia (q.v.), on the Potomac River, in 38° 53′ lat., 77° 2′ long., distant 226 miles S. from New York, 136 from Philadelphia, and 40 from Baltimore. The city covers an area of about 10 sq. m., or, with its suburbs of Georgetown (now West Washington) and the country portion of the district, 70 sq. m. Out of the 6111 acres covered by the city proper the streets and avenues occupy 2554 acres, and the government reservations (parks, &c.) 541 acres, thus leaving more than half its area permanently free from the encroachment of buildings. Besides the numerous small parks, Washington has a zoological park of 140 acres, and the Rock Creek Park of over 1500 acres, purchased in 1892 for $1,200,000, and extending for miles along the picturesque banks of a stream, amid forests of great natural beauty. There are 170 miles of paved streets and avenues, and 65 miles of unimproved streets. The improved streets are chiefly paved with asphalt, and all are thickly planted with shade-trees, numbering over 85,000, of many varieties, maples predominating.

The architecture of the city in the older settled districts is cheap and commonplace, but in the newer Washington is of striking variety and attractiveness. The government buildings are mostly fine and imposing structures. The Capitol, in which the national congress meets and the supreme court holds its sittings, is conspicuously placed on an eminence, commanding a noble view. Its lofty iron dome, crowned by a bronze figure of Liberty, is 285 feet in height, its length 751 feet, and its total cost about $14,000,000, including repairs. The central rotunda contains some elaborate frescoes, and historical paintings by Trumbull (q. v) and other artists. The hall of the House of Representatives is a spacious apartment, with desks for 356 members, and seats in the galleries for 1500 spectators. The Senate Chamber, with eightyeight senators, accommodates 1000 spectators. The National Memorial Hall in the Capitol is to receive statues contributed by each state to commemorate two of its distinguished citizens. The Treasury Department at Pennsylvania Avenue and Fifteenth Street, built of freestone and granite in the Ionic style, cost $7,000,000. The Interior Department, in which is located the Patent Office, occupies an entire square in the heart of the city, and is constructed of white marble, in pure Doric, costing $3,000,000. The Post-office Department opposite is a fine marble edifice of the Corinthian order of architecture. The granite building erected for the departments of state, war, and navy, in Renaissance style, is the largest

public edifice in Washington, covers 44 acres, has 566 rooms, and cost $11,000,000. The new Congressional Library building, on Capitol Hill, is built of solid white granite, in Italian Renaissance style, with iron, marble, and brick interior, and will cost $6,000,000. The president's house, and executive mansion, is a plain edifice of freestone, in classic style, painted white (whence called the White House). The other public buildings embrace the Agricultural Department, the Department of Justice, the Pension Office, the National Museum, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Army Medical Museum, the Coast Survey buildings, and the Smithsonian Institution. All of these are of brick, except the last, which is built of red sandstone, in the Byzantine style, with picturesque

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towers. The national monument to Washington is a towering obelisk of white marble, 555 feet in height, on the bank of the Potomac, erected at a cost of $1,230,000. The United States Naval Observatory, also of white marble, occupies a retired and commanding site on Georgetown Heights.

The National Soldiers' Home, 2 miles above the city, founded in 1851, has 600 acres of improved park and forest, and serves as free driving park and attractive rural resort, besides its primary function of providing a comfortable home for old and invalid soldiers of the United States army. The National Asylum for the Insane, on the heights above the Anacostia, or eastern branch of the Potomac, has nearly 1000 inmates, who must be either of the army or navy, or residents of the

District of Columbia. There are five hospitals, five orphan asylums, a foundling hospital, and several homes for the aged, for widows, and for the indigent. Washington is rich in institutions of learning, and its free public museums, libraries, and art galleries afford invaluable aids to those pursuing academical or professional studies. The Columbian University, founded in 1814, Georgetown College (Roman Catholic), dating from 1789, the National University, and Howard University (for coloured students) have each departments of law and medicine, besides the regular college course. The Catholic University of America, established in 1887, has two fine stone buildings just outside the city limits, the Divinity College being fully organised, and the Hall of Philosophy soon to be opened. The American University, under charge of the Methodists, has its grounds above Georgetown, and is expected to raise $10,000,000 for buildings and endowment. The National DeafMute College, founded in 1864, is a government institution for the education of deaf and dumb pupils from the army, the navy, and the District of Columbia. Its fine stone buildings lie just north of the city. Gonzaga College (Catholic) is on I Street. There are three business colleges, several seminaries for young ladies, five classical

schools, schools of languages, elocution, &c., and a large number of private schools. The public school system is in a high state of efficiency, 35,764 pupils being enrolled in the common schools out of a school census of 52,590. There are 97 public school houses, with 680 teachers, and annual expenditure of about $950,000. The Smithsonian Institution (q.v.), founded in 1846, affords valuable advantages to all institutions of learning, in the United States and abroad, through its system of international exchanges and by its numerous publications of the fruits of original research in many departments of science. The National Museum, originally established to exhibit the rich contributions given to the government by various countries from the World's Fair at Philadelphia in 1876, has become a most extensive and instructive collection of antiquities, ethnology, geology, and natural history generally

Of bronze statues erected in honour of famous men Washington has an abundance-mainly to military characters. Already hardly a public square or circle is without its monument. Equestrian statues of Washington, Jackson, Greene, Scott, Thomas, and McPherson are erected, besides full-length statues of Lafayette, Luther, Franklin, Chief-justice Marshall, Lincoln, Garfield, Professor

Henry, Farragut, General Rawlins, and Admiral Dupont. Washington has no less than 182 churches. The city is abundantly supplied with pure water, by a conduit 15 miles long, from the Great Falls of the Potomac.

While Washington has few manufactures, no foreign commerce, and but little shipping (being dependent on Georgetown for its small harbour facilities), it has a distinction, as the seat of the general government, to which no other city in the Union can lay claim. The annual assemblage of congress attracts a large influx of visitors from all parts of the country, while the great and farreaching business of all departments of the government requires a small army of officers and clerks for its transaction. The various bureaus employ between 6000 and 7000 persons. The city is to a great degree populated by the official class, and by merchants, artificers, and small manufacturers who supply their wants. The number of hotels and boarding-houses is very great. A steadily increasing number of people of wealth and taste are building residences at the national capital, where the presence of the diplomatic corps and of travellers and sojourners from all parts of the globe renders the society in a large sense cosmopolitan. The absence of smoky manufactories, the genial and salubrious climate, the pleasant situation and attractive suburbs, with the wide and smooth streets, contribute to render a residence in Washington during most of the year agreeable. The summer brings torrid heats, as in most cities and large towns, though not always long continued. The average temperature of the winter is 36, spring 55°, summer 76°, and autumn 56°; for the whole year the mean is 56° F.

The government of the Federal City (as President Washington called it, until the commissioners gave it his name in 1791) has been since 1874 vested in a commission of three officers, appointed by the president and senate. They have charge of all municipal and administrative affairs, police, streetimprovements, schools, &c., while congress is the sole legislature of the city and district, the citizens having no suffrage. As the government owns nearly half the property in the district, and the city exists largely for the benefit of its officers-legislative, executive, and judicial it has been settled by act of congress that the government pays half the annual expenses of the city government, the other moiety being taxed upon the property of the citizens. This government by commission has on the whole worked well in practice. The final location of the national capital at Washington, to which it was removed from Philadelphia in 1800, | was the fruit of a compromise, after a long struggle between the advocates of various cities in congress. The votes of those who favoured a wholly new settlement for that body, to avoid what were feared as local and sectional influences of the great cities, joined to the advocates of assumption of the state debts by the nation, carried the day for a location in what was then a wilderness. Various attempts were made, owing to the early discomforts of the capital, to change the seat of government. These were renewed in 1814, after the burning of the Capitol by the British army, and in 1846, on occasion of the ceding back to Virginia of her share of the District of Columbia. But the steady growth of the city and the public buildings, with the difficulty of agreeing upon any new or more central site, finally put to rest the agitation for removal. After the civil war of 1861-65 Washington began to move forward in a new career of prosperity. Its unpaved and unsightly streets were taken in hand, its defective sewerage system was radically reformed, its steep grades were reduced, thousand of shade-trees were planted, and the

town was transformed in a few years from a neglected and repulsive place to a beautiful and attractive city.

The original plan of Washington City was made by L'Enfant, a French engineer who had adopted America as his residence. Based largely upon the topography of Versailles, its characteristic features are the crossing of the rectangular streets by frequent broad transverse avenues, 160 to 120 feet wide, and the numerous circles and triangular reservations interspersed as little parks throughout the city. With a foresight of the future greatness of the country which now seems marvellous, the whole city was laid out on a scale so ample, with such wide spaces between its public buildings, as to lead to much cheap ridicule of Washington as the city of magnificent distances.' These distances, however, are now found not a whit too great, when the comfort and health of a teeming population are to be provided for. The population of Washington in 1800 was 3210; 1860, 61,122; 1880, 147,293; 1890, of the District, 230,392.

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He came of good English stock, being descended from the Washingtons of Northamptonshire. At an earlier time the family seems to have lived in the more northern part of England, and we cannot be far out of the way in tracing his origin to the mingled Norse and Angle blood of Yorkshire. In 1658 George Washington's grandfather, John Washington, first appeared in Virginia, and soon acquired wealth and position. He commanded the Virginia militia in the disgraceful attack on the Indians in Piscataway Fort, Maryland. For his share in this enterprise he was reprimanded by Governor Berkeley. The people, however, seem to have been on his side. He died soon after, and took no part in Bacon's rebellon against Berkeley (1676). John Washington's second son, Augustine, was the father of George Washington, by his second wife Mary Ball. Augustine died while George was still a mere boy, leaving a large family, and means inadequate to the upbringing of the younger

children.

Nothing is known of Washington's childhood, notwithstanding the many stories which have gathered about his name. He seems to have been a good, healthy boy of strong physique, with a sobermindedness somewhat beyond his years. In 1747 he went to Mount Vernon, the residence of his half-brother Lawrence, who, as the eldest son of Augustine Washington, had received the better part of the Washington property, and an English education. The removal was a good thing for the boy, as it gave him access to books and to better teachers, and brought him into contact with the Fairfax family, to which Lawrence Washington's wife belonged. His love of hunting seems to have been the thing that attracted Lord Fairfax to him. At all events, in 1748, when Washington was sixteen years of age, Lord Fairfax employed him to survey the property in the Valley of Virginia which he had inherited from the avaricious Lord Culpeper of Charles II.'s time. Surveying alternated with_hunting, and the winters were passed at Mount Vernon. Still Washington acquired from these expeditions habits of self-reliance and endurance which such a life alone teaches. In 1751 he accompanied his brother, who was dying of consumption, to the Barbadoes; and this seems to have been the only time he went beyond the limits of the continental colonies. In 1752 Lawrence Washington died, leaving him guardian of his only daughter, and heir to his estates in the event of