and proceeded immediately to carry out the intentions of the government.[1] Being employed on the coast of southern California. Davidson did not reach Oregon till June 1851, when he completed the topographical surveys of Cape Disappointment, Point Adams, and Sand Island, at the entrance to the Columbia, and departed southward, having time only to examine Port Orford harbor before the winter storms. It was not until July 1852 that a protracted and careful survey was begun by Davidson's party, when he returned in the steamer Active,[2] Captain James Alden of the navy, to examine the shores of the Strait of Fuca and adjacent coasts, a work in which he was engaged for several years, to his own credit and the advantage of the country.[3] For many years Captain Lawson has directed his very valuable efforts to the region about Puget Sound.[4]
- ↑ Davidson's party were all young men, anxious to distinguish themselves. They were A. M. Harrison, James S. Lawson, and John Rockwell. They sailed in the steamer Philadelphia, Capt. Robert Pearson, crossed the Isthmus, and took passage again on the Tennessee, Capt. Cole, for San Francisco. Lawson's Autobiography, MS., 5–18.
- ↑ The Active was the old steamer Gold Hunter rechristened. Lawson's Autobiography, MS., 49.
- ↑ For biography, and further information concerning Prof. Davidson and his labors, see Hist. Cal., this series.
- ↑ James S. Lawson was born in Philadelphia, Feb. 13, 1828, was educated in the schools of that city, and while in the Central high school was a classmate of George Davidson, Prof. Bache being principal. Bache had formerly been president of Girard College, and still had charge of the magnetic observatory in the college grounds. The night observers were selected from the pupils of the high school, and of these Lawson was one, continuing to serve till the closing of the observatory in 1845. In that year Lawson was appointed second assistant teacher in the Catherine-street grammar school of Philadelphia, which position he held for one year, when he was offered a position in the Friends' school at Wilmington, Delaware, under charge of Samuel Allsoff. In January 1848 Lawson commenced duty as a clerk to Prof. Bache, then superintendent of the U. S. coast survey, remaining in that capacity until detached and ordered to join Davidson for the surveys on the Pacific coast in 1850. From the time of his arrival on the Pacific coast to the present, Capt. Lawson has been almost continuously engaged in the labor of making government surveys as an assistant of Prof. Davidson. Lawson's Autobiography, MS., 2. His work for a number of years has been chiefly in that portion of the original Oregon territory north of the Columbia and west of the Cascade Mountains, and his residence has been at Olympia, where his high character and scientific attainments have secured him the esteem of all, and in which quiet and beautiful little capital repose may be found from occasional toil and exposure. Mr Harrison was, like Davidson and Lawson, a graduate of the Philadelphia Central school, and of the same class.
This manuscript of Lawson's authorship is one of unusual value, contain-
