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LIFE AT PUGET SOUND

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 _Tamahnous_.--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
  Coulee.--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 Canyon.--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'Alene 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'Alene.--Battle of Four Lakes.--The Yakima Chief and the
  Road-Makers.                                                         75


  CHAPTER VI.

  Colville to Seattle.--"Red."--"Ferrins."--"Broke Miners."--A
  Rare Fellow-Traveller.--The Bell-Mare.--Pelouse
  Fall.--Red-Fox Road.--Early Californians.--Frying-Pan
  Incense.--Dragon-Flies.--Death of the Chief Seattle.                 93


  CHAPTER VII.

  Port Angeles Village and the Indian Ranch.--A "Ship's
  _Klootchman_."--Indian _Muck-a-Muck_.--Disposition of an Old
  Indian