COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY BUILDING, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY-AN EXAMPLE OF ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE. NOTE THE LIVEOAK UPON THE RIGHT OF THE PICTURE-ONE OF CALIFORNIA'S CHARACTERISTIC SHADE TREES. COAST COUNTIES TO THE SOUTH 133 residences here. North of Oakland is Berkeley, the site of the University of California, and south of Oakland the attractive suburb of Alameda. Communica Francisco. Oakland's water-front on San Francisco bay is des- Oakland's tined to make it of more than ordinary commercial im- tion with San portance, and the government, recognizing this, has been devoting for some years appropriations to the construction of a tidal canal so that deep water vessels may come close to the city's wharves. Great as are its manufacturing and maritime advantages, it is principally as a home, a resident town, that Oakland has grown to be the third largest community in the State, containing over half the population of the county. It has attracted to itself many thousands of the business men and professional men of San Francisco. They do their business there, but will live only in Oakland. Three ferry systems-soon to be four-connect it with San Francisco. Abundant trains. distribute through the main arteries of the city whence 130 miles of street car lines radiate to San Lorenzo, San Leandro, Haywards, Melrose, Fitchburg, Elmhurst, Emeryville, Lorin, Berkeley and Alameda. This intra-urban and the suburban system of rapid transit is now being extended to Richmond and San Jose. All these lines render easy of access most attractive localities for abode. Nearly one thousand new homes have been erected during the Rapid past year and they are all upon healthful sites. Building New Homes. lots and rents are cheap, and houses are sold or rented as fast as they are built. The commutation rates of travel are the lowest in the world. While building has been the rule throughout the county, particularly has this been noticeable in the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda. Alameda county has a population of 131,000 according to the last census, which gave Oakland city a population of 67,000. The city council, realizing the rapid growth of the city, recently ordered a new census taken, and this gives a figure of 82,974. The future holds much in store for this county. Already it is the terminus of the Southern Pacific rail Building of Bonding the City for Parks. road and the Santa Fe is building an extension of its line from Point Richmond. It will co-operate with the Realty Syndicate in the management of a new ferry system between Oakland and San Francisco. Steps are being taken in the city of Oakland to bond the city for something over $2,000,000 for the purpose of acquiring parks, boulevards, additional school houses and sites and a new city hall. The Federal government has nearly completed a new post-office building for use of the city at a cost of $200,000. The Carnegie library has also been completed during the past year. Mr. Carnegie's donation for that building was $50,000, and for the site the citizens subscribed $20,000. One of the important projects undertaken here during the past year, and one which will not be completed for some time, is the building of a tunnel to connect Alameda and Contra Costa counties. A range of hills now separates the two counties and has served as a hindrance to travel between the counties. Both counties have sought to have the tunnel built, and, in fact, it was started many years ago by private capital, which proved inadequate for the enterprise. Within the past three years the Merchants Exchange of Oakland undertook the task and though a special act of the legislature was required to authorize the expenditure of the money, it was accomplished, and the necessary appropriations made by both counties. The estimated expense of constructing the tunnel is very nearly $30,000. One of the latest corporations to appreciate the advantages of the Oakland side of the bay as a manufacturing Company center is the Pacific Steel Company, which is already erecting a big plant on the twenty-five acres of land it recently acquired in East Oakland. In the hills east of Oakland is located Mills College, which has been designated the "Wellesley of the Pacific Coast," as it is one of the best-known and most efficient colleges for women in the United States. Throughout the county are scattered a number of notable secondary schools, nearly all of them leading their students to the University COAST COUNTIES TO THE SOUTH 135 University of California at Berkeley. The characteristics of this The institution are elsewhere noted. The university stands of California. to-day among the recognized institutions of learning in the United States and during the last years of the administration of its recently retired president, Martin Kellogg, and the few years of the aggressive work of the present president, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, has moved rapidly to a place of acknowledged high standing among the world's best universities. Its aim is not only for the education of the young men and young women of California, but its well-managed university extension system, its farmers' institutes, its lecturers in all branches, that go out among the people telling of the latest advances of science in agriculture, horticulture and mining, stock-raising and dairying and other lines of practical learning, have made it a power for great good in the development of the fastgrowing State. Tuition here is absolutely free to all residents of the State, and the student without wealth may here find numerous ways of earning his own way through the four years of his college term. of the Here at Berkeley also is the State Institute for the Education Deaf, Dumb and Blind, which, under the guidance of Pro- Unfortunate. fessor Warring Wilkinson, an acknowledged expert in this line for training the unfortunate, has for a quarter of a century stood for all that is best in this peculiar class of educational attainment. Close by, in Oakland, is the Home for Adult Blind, an admirable institution maintained by the State. Concerning Oakland's climate, and the record is practically true of all Alameda county, statistics are rather instructive than interesting, but Oakland's equable climate is quite clearly demonstrated from the daily records noted at Chabot Observatory. Since January, 1876, (beginning of the recorded observations), the annual average temperature has been 50°. The average temperature of its coldest weather has been 48°; that of its warmest, 62°; and its average humidity, 80°. The average temperature of 1902 was 50°; the temperature of the warmest day, 70°; of the coolest 39°; the greatest variation in twenty-four |