Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California   By: Caroline C. Leighton

WITH

SKETCHES OF TRAVEL

IN

WASHINGTON TERRITORY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA

1865 1881

BY

CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON

BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 1884

COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY LEE AND SHEPARD.

All rights reserved.

PREFACE.

The following selections from observations and experiences during a residence of sixteen years on the Pacific Coast, while they do not claim to describe fully that portion of the country, nor to give any account of its great natural wealth and resources, yet indicate something of its characteristic features and attractions, more especially those of the Puget Sound region.

This remote corner of our territory, hitherto almost unknown to the country at large, is rapidly coming into prominence, and is now made easy of access by the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The vast inland sea, popularly known as Puget Sound, ramifying in various directions, the wide spreading and majestic forests, the ranges of snow capped mountains on either side, the mild and equable climate, and the diversified resources of this favored region, excite the astonishment and admiration of all beholders. To the lovers of the grand and beautiful, unmarred as yet by any human interference, who appreciate the freedom from conventionalities which pertain to longer settled portions of the globe, it presents an endless field for observation and enjoyment. There is already a steady stream of emigration to this new "land of promise," and every thing seems to indicate for it a vigorous growth and development, and a brilliant and substantial future.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

At Sea. Mariguana Island. Sea Birds. Shipwreck. Life on Roncador Reef. The Rescue. Isthmus of Panama. Voyage to San Francisco. The New Baby. 1

CHAPTER II.

Port Angeles. Indian "Hunter" and his Wife. Sailor's Funeral. Incantation. Indian Graves. Chief Yeomans. Mill Settlements. Port Gamble Trail. Canoe Travel. The Memaloost . Tommy and his Mother. Olympic Range. Ediz Hook. Mrs. S. and her Children. Grand Indian Wedding. Crows and Indians. 18

CHAPTER III.

Indian Chief Seattle. Frogs and Indians. Spring Flowers and Birds. The Red Tamáhnous . The Little Pend d'Oreille. Indian Legend. From Seattle to Fort Colville. Crossing the Columbia River Bar. The River and its Surroundings. Its Former Magnitude. The Grande Coulée. Early Explorers, Heceta, Meares, Vancouver, Grey. Curious Burial Place. Chinese Miners. Umatilla. Walla Walla. Sage Brush and Bunch Grass. Flowers in the Desert. "Stick" Indians. Klickatats. Spokane Indian. Snakes. Dead Chiefs. A Kamas Field. Basaltic Rocks. 38

CHAPTER IV.

Two Hundred Miles on the Upper Columbia. Steamer "Forty Nine." Navigation in a Cañon. Pend d'Oreille River and Lake. Rock Paintings. Tributaries of the Upper Columbia. Arrow Lakes. Kettle Falls. Salmon Catching. Salmon Dance. Goose Dance. 63

CHAPTER V.

Old Fort Colville. Angus McDonald and his Indian Family. Canadian Voyageurs . Father Joseph. Hardships of the Early Missionaries. The Coeurs d'Alêne and their Superstitions. The Catholic Ladder. Sisters of Notre Dame. Skill of the Missionaries in instructing the Indians. Father de Smet and the Blackfeet. A Native Dance. Spokanes. Exclusiveness of the Coeurs d'Alêne. Battle of Four Lakes. The Yakima Chief and the Road Makers. 75

CHAPTER VI.