Verein, 4,000 volumes; What Cheer House, 5,000 volumes; Society of California Pioneers, 3,000 volumes; Public School, 3,000 volumes; Bancroft's Pacific Library, containing over 1,000 works relating to the Pacific Coast of North America; besides which there are libraries of considerable size belonging to the several literary, scientific and law associations of the city.

VALUE OF CITY PROPERTY - MUNICIPAL INCOME, DEBT AND EXPENDITURES - BUILDINGS, IMPROVEMENTS, ETC.

The assessed valuation of property in the city for 1867 amounted to $96,700,397, of which $53,485, 421 consisted of real and $43,214,976 of personal property. The revenue accruing for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, amounted to $1,841,753 96, of which $987,105 77 went to the State. The municipal debt reaches at the present time the sum of $4,748,677.

The municipal expenditures for the last fiscal year were as follows:

The expenditures on the streets and highways amounted during the year 1867 to $1,009,883 85. The total amount expended on permanent improvements in the city was nearly $8,500,000. This relates to every class of improvements, such as private buildings, school houses, churches, factories, railroads, docks, wharves, etc. The number of buildings erected in 1867 was, according to Langley's City Directory, recently published, 1,050-350 being brick. The present number of buildings in the city is, on the same authority, 17,368—of which 13,511 are constructed of wood.

The principal buildings completed during the year 1867 consist of the Bank of California, the Merchants' Exchange, the Mercantile Library Buildings, the Mechanic's Institute, the Lick House extension, Fireman's Fund Insurance, Hayward's, and the Pacific Insurance Company's building, all very costly and elegant structures, besides many large and costly blocks and stores in different parts of the city.

Many extensive and costly improvements have been made within the past year or two in the construction of wharves and docks. The principal of these consists of the Dry Dock at Hunter's Point, com

menced September, 1866, and to be completed by the end of 1868. This dock is to be 465 feet long and 125 feet wide, having sufficient depth to float in vessels drawing 22 feet of water. Though excavated for the most part out of solid rock, the front is to be covered with heavy blocks of cut granite. It is to be supplied with powerful engines, pumps and every appliance for securing the greatest efficiency, and will have cost when completed over $1,200,000.

The Merchants' Dry Dock Company have lately finished a similar, but smaller work, at a cost of about $60,000. The apparatus here is capable of sustaining vessels of 1,000 tons burden. The Union Lumber Association are now constructing a dock of considerable capacity near Beale street, at a prospective cost of about $150,000. The improvements made during the past two years by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, in filling in a large area on the northeastern shore of Mission Bay, rank among the most important of the kind yet effected in or around the city; 300,000 cubic yards of earth have been used for making new ground; the wharves on which the Company's new sheds and store houses are located, having required 1,200 piles and 3,000,000 feet of sawed lumber in their construction.

POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS.

The police force of the city is composed of one chief, and one hundred men the latter at an annual salary of $1,500 each; and four eaptains, with a salary of $1,800 each; besides which, there are a number of officers deputized for duty in different parts of the city, to look after private property, the owners of which pay them for their services.

In December, 1866, San Francisco abolished the volunteer, and adopted the system of a paid Fire Department. This organization is one of the best appointed, as it has always been one of the most efficient anywhere to be found. The working force consists of one hundred and fifty-six members, officers and men included. Belonging to the department are six steam engines with accompanying apparatus, two more having recently been ordered from the east, whence all have been imported. There are 493 hydrants and 50 cisterns in various parts of the city, the latter capable of holding 1,480,000 gallons of water. The sum of $112,000 is appropriated annually for the support of the department, including purchase of engines, etc. A fire alarm telegraph has also been introduced-the construction and fitting up of which cost $20,000.

CEMETERIES, PUBLIC GARDENS, AND. HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATIONS. -CITY RAILROADS.

The principal cemeteries in the vicinity of the city are Lone Mountain and Calvary, both very extensive, the former being beautifully adorned and handsomely laid out. There are here many elegant tombs and monuments, the site of both these cemeteries being extremely fine, commanding an extensive view of the city, bay, the surrounding country and the ocean-the latter being but two or three miles distant. There are also six other cemeteries in the neighborhood of the city, belonging to the Masons, Odd Fellows, Israelites, etc.

The only public gardens calling for special notice are Woodward's and the City Gardens, in the southern part of the town, and embracing some eight or ten acres of land each, all handsomely laid out and improved. At these spots a great many birds, animals and natural curiosities, have been collected, which, with the ample means provided for recreation and amusement, render them favorite places of resort.

There are over thirty Homestead Associations owning lands in and around the city-this method of acquiring lots being greatly in favor here.

There are seven city railroads within the limits of the town, the whole embracing a linear extent of nearly thirty miles. They are all operated by horse power, no locomotives being allowed to enter the densely populated portions of the city. Besides these local roads, the San José railroad enters the city from the south; while connections are made, by means of steam ferries, with several roads on the east side of the bay.

The following receipts of the principal city railroads for the month of February, 1868, fairly exhibit their average earnings throughout the year: Omnibus, $21,693; North Beach and Mission, $10,575; Central, $11,820; Front street, Mission and Ocean, $7,086; Market street, $5,909.

GAS WORKS AND WATER WORKS-MARKETS.

The San Francisco Gas Company, organized in 1852, is the only one of the kind in San Francisco, furnishing all the gas consumed by the inhabitants. This company have a capital stock of $6,000,000, which has always been sought after, both at home and abroad, as a safe and profitable investment.

Almost the entire supply of water for San Francisco is furnished by the Spring Valley Water Works Company, formed in 1865, by a

consolidation of a company bearing the same name with the San Francisco Water Company, and having a present capital stock of $6,000,000, divided into 60,000 shares of $100 each. The sources of supply consist of Pillarcitos and Lobos creeks, having capacity to furnish much more than the present wants of the city require. This water is of excellent quality, being taken from pure mountain streams in the Coast Range, south of San Francisco. The company's reservoirs are capable of holding enough water to serve the city for many months in an emergency. The length of pipe laid down within the limits of the city proper extend a distance of seventy-eight miles.

While there are several large public markets, with a multitude of smaller ones in different parts of the town, the principal establishment of this kind is the California and Pine street Market, built in the summer of 1867, at a cost of $200,000. It is capacious, well arranged, and admirably adapted to the purposes for which it was designed, being open and of easy approach on every side, and centrally located with reference to population.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES.

At the head of the fiscal institutions on this coast stands the Bank of California, organized in July, 1864, under the laws of this State, with a capital of $2,000,000, since increased to $5,000,000, on which it pays regular monthly dividends of one per cent., being understood to have large reserves. Its list of stockholders and officers includes many of our leading business men and capitalists, and its broad and liberal financial policy, leading to a large and rapidly expanding business, has already given it a commanding influence both at home and abroad.

The Pacific Bank, also incorporated under the laws of California, has been in operation for several years, having meantime disbursed to stockholders one per cent. monthly dividends on its paid up capital. There are several branches of foreign banks located in San Francisco, the home institutions they represent having an aggregate capital of $7,000,000.

Besides these regularly incorporated establishments, there are thirteen unincorporated banking houses in the city, having a total capital of about $5,000,000. The funds held by private capitalists, for purposes of temporary loans, exceed $10,000,000, while the deposits in the several Savings Banks reach the sum of $15,000,000, making a total of about $41,000,000 employed for loan purposes. There are seven Savings and Loan Institutions in the city, two or three of which

are doing an immense business, while all are in a prosperous condition, with a rapidly growing patronage; the sums deposited in these places being larger in San Francisco, population considered, than in any other city in the world.

There are ten home Insurance companies in San Francisco, with an aggregate capital of about $6,000,000, and thirty-five agencies or branches of foreign companies doing business in the city. Their operations extend to every class of insurance, and their profits, notwithstanding a sharp competition, have heretofore been large.

UNITED STATES BRANCH MINT.

At this establishment, located in San Francisco, is made two-thirds of all the coin manufactured in the United States. One hundred men and three coining presses are kept constantly busy, $242,000,000 having been coined here between 1854, the year of its establishment, and 1867, inclusive an amount nearly equal to one-half the entire coinage of the Philadelphia Mint since its origin in 1793. The business of this institution having, however, outgrown its narrow accommodations, the Government has purchased a suitable site for a new establishment on the corner of Mission and Fifth streets. For this central and every way suitable location the sum of $100,000 was paid, much less than its actual value at present, and thereon will soon be erected a mint on a scale to meet the requirements of the Pacific coast for many years to

come.

The law allows one-fifth of one per cent. for wastage on the amount of bullion manipulated. How close this establishment has been able to work of late years, will appear from the reports of the Superintendent for the years 1865 and 1866:

The whole amount of gold bullion delivered to the coiner, during the year 1865, was 2,038,211 ounces, valued at $37,920,213 31; the whole amount returned by him during same period was 2,038, 106 ounces, valued at $37,918,257; showing a discrepancy of 105 ounces, equivalent to $1,956.

The above discrepancy of one hundred and five ounces, worth less than $2,000, is the amount of actual wastage, or the gold lost in manipulating nearly $38,000,000-only three and a half per cent. of the legal limit.

The whole amount of silver bullion delivered to the coiner during the same period was 563,233.74 ounces, valued at $655,399 26; the amount returned by him was 563,223.46 ounces, valued at $655,387 30; difference, 10.23 ounces, valued at $11 96.