Life at Puget Sound

Life at Puget Sound, by Caroline C. Leighton, is subtitled With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California. The preface says the selections are from observations and experiences during a residence of sixteen years on the Pacific Coast. The preface adds that the selections do not claim to describe fully that portion of the country, nor to give any account of its great natural wealth and resources.

The writer says, "We have been here on this bare reef six days, with the breakers all around us, and do not know whether we shall get off or not." A passage headed San Francisco, July 2, 1865, says, "We are safely here at last, after forty-two days' passage." Of a captain the writer says, "The captain was quite a study to us. On shore he presented the most ordinary appearance." The writer says the gopher's wise, old-fashioned looking head is quite a contrast to that of the lizard, with its eager, inquisitive expression.