ONLY SOME TWELVE DECADES have passed since the first small band of settlers dug clams along the beach and built their cabins at Alki Point where Seattle, Washington, had its beginning. When the men came from Alki, after sounding the harbor and finding good anchorage for ships, they staked their claims on February 15, 1852, built their cabins on tiny patches of land they had cleared in the forest, and then began the survey through the heavy timber for the future great city. Seattle's streets still carry many of the names of those first settlers-or names bestowed by them-and in the following pages are the historically true, and often amusing, stories of the early days of these streets-how they looked, who walked along them; all the friendly, gossipy beginnings, recalled by the granddaughter of Arthur Armstrong Denny, founder and surveyor of the city.