The Sound's Long Memory for Rain

Tacoma, June 4—Edward Huggins, who has kept a record for forty years on the Sound, is a terror to the 'oldest inhabitant.' When the oldest inhabitant croaks, Mr. Huggins brings down his black and white records, which have been kept intact since the days of the Hudson Bay Company. These records show that the fall, winter, spring, and summer of 1863 knocked out all weather records before or since, so far as Mr. Huggins' chronicles go. During that period it rained in an unprecedented way, snowed for six months on a stretch, and kept it up nearly all of the summer of 1863, many sheep and cattle dying from exposure. There was also thunder and lightning of the sort that alarmed people Saturday evening. While not unprecedented, Mr. Huggins concedes to the 'oldest inhabitants' that Saturday's storm was very unusual. In fact, he says there has not been much thunder or lightning on Puget Sound of late and people seem to have come to the conclusion that thunderbolts, or a vivid flash of lightning, were things almost unknown hereabouts. And Mr. Huggins' records are the best obtainable evidence that such nuisances are actually 'almost unknown' on Puget Sound.