- What seemed from a distance to be a smooth slope I found to be a dense intricacy of fallen saplings, overgrown with fern and willow higher than a man’s head. With my usual desire to climb to the top and see the view I continued for about four hours, walking along the tree trunks and falling into the fern. I startled several large animals, but I could not tell what they were, and the noise I made crashing through the brush frightened them away before I could reach them.
- The air was still and dry, and I was faint for want of water. I did not expect to find any, but by a strange good fortune I came across a cavity in a fallen cedar, burnt out by the fire and shielded from the sun, which had caught and preserved the rain as it seemed for my especial restoration. I spent half an hour in climbing a tree, but I could see nothing except forest to the west and east. Beyond the prairie and strip of wood the Strait of Fuca was partly visible, and to the south mountain after mountain rose, until the furthest ones were white with snow. I did not get into camp until 6 o’clock and I was much exhausted. One of the men brought in a deer.
- Tolmie, William F. (1812-1886) (historylink.org)
Dr. William F. Tolmie played a significant role in the Puget Sound region as it came under United States jurisdiction and Washington Territory was created. A young Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) clerk and surgeon, Tolmie participated in the 1833 establishment of Fort Nisqually (in present-day DuPont), the first non-Native settlement on Puget Sound. During his early years in the Northwest Tolmie kept extensive journals describing the region’s land, peoples, and cultures. He collected plant and animal specimens and cultural artifacts for scientists in England. He returned to Fort Nisqually in 1843, taking charge as it transitioned from fur-trading outpost to center of extensive farming operations under HBC subsidiary Puget Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC). Tolmie followed the British company’s policy of friendly, cooperative relations with Native tribes and attempted the same with the growing number of American settlers. This proved increasingly difficult as settlers encroached on company farmlands and American efforts to confine tribes on small reservations led to war in 1855-1856, with Tolmie and HBC caught in the middle. In 1859, with PSAC transferring more operations from American territory to Vancouver Island, Tolmie moved to Victoria, where he took charge of PSAC farms on the island.