In northern Marin, dairying and poultry raising are flourishing industries, and there are vineyards and fruit farms all about in valley and on hillside slopes. At San Rafael is one of the best tourist hotels in the State -the Hotel Rafael-attractive both summer and winter. In the canyons and great ravines of the county, quail and other game birds are thick, and rare sport can be obtained at almost any time during the open season. The Country Club has leased a large acreage in the northern part of the county, and here the sport is exceptionally fine. The Tamalpais Sportsmen's Club control a large tract in the southern part of the county, and here also there is good shooting and fishing. Deer are also plentiful and some startling records have been made in Marin county in the pursuit of this agile game. Attractive Hotel Rafael. Rendezvous Yachtmen find the southern coast of Marin especially for adapted for their pastime, and at Sausalito, we find the Yachtsmen. San Francisco and Pacific Yacht Clubs, and at Tiburon, the Corinthians. Well fitted club-houses, where frequent entertainments are given, are located at these places and the sport is both exciting and pleasurable. Frequent cruises are held and races for cups and the championship are a part of the club life. Great expense is gone to by the members in fitting up yachts to enter in the championship races. At Mill Valley and other places there are gun clubs, and various resorts throughout the county can boast of perfect golf links and tennis courts. Mineral Lake county with its mineral springs, its lakes of Lake County's crystal clearness, its rugged mountain peaks, its fast- Springs. flowing streams, the blue sky ever overhead and red soil under foot, with wide-spreading oaks, with towering pines and firs, has gained the name of the "Switzerland of California." It is pre-eminently a resort county, but that means simply that those who live without the county are as anxious as they can be to spend days each year amid its delights. The residents know and love the charm of their mountain slopes and their fertile valleys and few counties of the State offer more attractions to the man whose capital is more in brain and brawn than in the size of his bank account. For here nature is in her kindliest mood almost the whole year through A Typical Ideal homes are here, as there are in other upper Cali- Foothill fornia foothill counties-picturesque homes, healthful Home. homes, with roomy cabins, roofed with redwood shakes, sided, often, with pine-logs, fenced with timber cut from the mountain sides; homes with fire-places, cavernous and comfortable, veritable inglenooks built of stone, dug from the hillside behind the house, and piled up with clay taken from the soil close at hand. And here are sparkling springs, clear water and plenty of it, brought from the rocky hills near by; water for drinking and irrigating, if need be, although the rainfall through all this region makes irrigation something not to be thought of, except where the home-builder needs a patch of clover or alfalfa to keep his cows in the proper butter-making humor the year round. Roses Shake-roofed Over these shake-roofed cabins-I can see many of severe them through all this section-climb rosebushes riotously, Cabins. with blossoms of yellow gold, decking the sides and waving from the roof peaks. About the dooryard are fig trees that bear abundantly, white figs or black figs, of succulent taste and fragrant odor. Here, too, are olives, with deep purpling fruit amid their gray-green foliage. Orange trees are often here, too, and lemons, for oranges thrive frequently as high up and as far north as this, and here, too, are vineyards bearing luscious green-gold clusters of Muscats or rose-red Tokays, deep purple Missions or tiny bunches of golden Chassellas. The barns of such homes trifle with the climate, with open doorways, and sides banked only with hay, impudently daring the weather to do its worst. For the winters here, while often cool and shaip during January and February, are laughable from a climatic standpoint, to anyone who has lived in New England or old England or the Middle United States. of Clear Lake. Lakeport is a thriving town on the shores of Clear Lake On the Shores and from it run little steamers, carrying travelers to and Mendocino and its from the many attractive resorts. From Bartlett Springs, a famous resort for Californians, automobile stages run across the country into the Sacramento valley, connecting with the west side line of the Southern Pacific. North and westerly from Lake is Mendocino, a county of wondrous possibilities and comparatively little developed. The main line of the California Northwestern railway penetrates almost to the center of the county at Willits, and is projected northerly into Humboldt, to touch the ocean on Humboldt bay at Eureka. Mendocino is known chiefly for its forests, but as the Forests. forests are cleared, agriculture and horticulture follow and in hundreds of valleys throughout the big county are opportunities for home-building and fortune making. Here are vast tracts of redwood timber land; here are many mineral springs, and wide ranges where sheep and cattle thrive all the year. Ukiah, the county seat, is a wide-awake city with many improvements and many more projected. It takes its name from a redoubtable Indian chief who helped make history in the early days when the Anglo-Saxon was roaming the California wilderness. In Mendocino rises the Eel river, a water course that finds its ocean outlet in Humboldt bay. Humboldt is a county that, like Mendocino, up to the present time has been largely devoted to lumbering, but other industries are following fast, and in the towns of Eureka, Arcata, Ferndale, and Fortuna are growing up communities of many resources. CHAPTER VI. COAST COUNTIES SOUTH OF SAN FRANCISCO. Populous Section Immediately About San Francisco, the Metropolis of California-Oakland, Third City in the State-Picturesque and Attractive Section on Eastern Shore of San Francisco Bay-Homes on the Foothills Facing the Golden Gate-Many Educational Institutions-Early Fruit Region-Alameda and Contra Costa Counties-The Santa Clara Valley Paradise-City of San Jose and Recent Progress-Lick Observatory and Mt. Hamilton —San Mateo, Its Suburban Homes and Spreading Oaks-Leland Stanford Junior University and its Work-Santa Cruz by the Sea -Big Basin Redwood Park-Old Monterey -Marvels of Famed Del Monte -Pacific GroveMarine Laboratory, Salmon Fishing, El Carmelo Mission -San Benito and its Undeveloped Resources -Fertile Valleys of Monterey and San Luis Obispo -Sugar Beets and Beet Sugar-Mineral Springs-Paso Robles and Santa Vsabel. It's O my heart, my heart, To be out in the sun and sing- W1 HILE not directly south of San Francisco, the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa easterly across San Francisco bay, are notable communities to be included in this chapter. Their proximity to the greatest city of California gives them special advantages for residence purposes, for manufacturing, for educational institutions, and for the many suburban features which a great city demands. The city of Oakland, Alameda's county seat, is the third city of California and a place of rare beauty. Its site is almost ideal, situated on the sloping plain which runs from the Contra Costa hills southerly and westerly to the waters of San Francisco bay. Over this vast plain are spread live oaks, centuries old, shading the streets in many places and affording centering points for many attractive parks and gardens. The city is well built up with homes, owned not only by residents of Oakland, but many San Francisco merchants and professional men have their |