would almost seem to be indispensable for profitable farming in several districts; although this, as yet, is considered to be by no means certain. The cold winds and moist fogs of the coast are sometimes wanted in this division, as well to water the parched earth, as to temper the excessive heat of the solar rays, reflected from the sides of the hills in the narrower valleys, and concentrated every where to a high degree. In the great longitudinal valley, and still more in the smaller cross valleys which lie between the former and the Sierra Nevada, the heat in summer is sometimes very dreadful-rising frequently, and that too, day after day, for months together, to 100° and 110° of Fahrenheit. Still, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the soil is so rich and productive, and the climate so extremely dry and healthy, that there is every reason to believe these districts will soon be largely inhabited by an agricultural population. In some parts of the valley of the San Joaquin which are liable to be overflowed by the river floods, it is believed that rice may be profitably cultivated. Meanwhile, there is abundance of deer and smaller game in the forests and plains; the streams and lakes absolutely swarm with the most delicious fish; while geese, ducks, and other wild fowl are exceedingly plentiful.

It is in the cross valleys running up to the summit elevation of the Sierra Nevada that the chief gold placers are situated. The whole country in this quarter, for a length of at least five hundred miles, and an average breadth of perhaps thirty or forty, is highly auriferous. The loose bed of every stream particularly, but also the dry sandy soil of most of the intervening plains, uplands and hills, contains particles of gold; while even the deep seated rocks in many parts are impregnated with the precious metal, and are beginning to be wrought in a scientific manner for its extraction. If some small portion of the auriferous district may already seem to be almost exhausted, yet its whole extent is so great, and so many parts are yet untouched, while all, by the aid of proper scientific appliances, can be made still to render a bountiful reward to the miner, that it may be truly said, generations must pass before the Californian gold regions can be emptied of their treasures, or cease to be profitably wrought. This may be more particularly said of the gold-bear

ing quartz rocks and veins, which in many places are exceedingly numerous and rich.

Nature, as if content to scatter her bounties in this quarter beneath the surface, has not also gifted the soil with exceeding fertility, although there are many beautiful and fertile small spots to be found in the district. In the months of April and May, these places bloom and smell like a well tended garden, from the variety, beauty and perfume of their wild flowers. The mineral riches make it less desirable that these districts should also possess a rich and prolific soil. Still it is in this quarter that those enormous trees chiefly grow which amaze and almost terrify by their prodigious height and bulk, those who have been only used to the puny forests of less favored climes. A common enough height for these trees is three hundred feet, while an equally common diameter may range from fifteen to twenty feet. Many, however, have been found of much larger dimensions. The forests on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada will give an inexhaustible supply of timber for household and most other purposes to which wood is applied in the country.

Besides the gold mines on the west skirts of the Snowy Mountains, there are several others scattered over California; while many other mineral treasures are to be found. There is a valuable mine of quicksilver near San José, and many silver, and silver and lead mines, as well as others of copper and lead are already known in various parts of the country. However, the population up to the time of the rush to the gold regions was too small, and the capital and energy of the owners too limited, to permit these and similar mines to be wrought to advantage. Coal has been discovered in some parts as well as iron. There is excellent stone for building purposes to be had in various places. Sulphur, asphalte and many other valuable mineral substances are also ascertained to exist in different localities. The mineral wealth of the country indeed, though not fully examined, is believed to be far more extensive than what has hitherto appeared, however great it may seem in these times.

To the immigrant from an old settled land, where competition exists in severity, and the means of a bare subsistence are not easily to be had, California offers every inducement to draw

him to her country. Here is political and social freedom—a beautiful, pleasant, and healthy climate-a soil rich, and fertile, producing every necessary, and most of the luxuries of liferivers and bays, abounding with delicious fish; forests and fields, with game of every species-mineral regions, where fortunes may be made on a sudden, and, at all events, where the industrious laborer is sure to provide a moderate competency for himself, in a wonderfully short space of time. Here are towns starting yearly, nay, almost weekly, into existence, whose inhabitants are full of life, energy and hope, determined and certain to prosper; great cities and ports, swelling into magnificence before one's eyes, destined ere long to bear sway over the broad Pacific, by reason of their natural position, their wealth, energy and power. Here labor is honorable, and meets an ample reward; and, here, while the most unbounded ambition, in mining and agricultural, commercial and political pursuits, may gratify its most daring inner wishes, and the patriotic enthusiast foresee a glorious future to this, his adopted country, the peaceful, retiring and contented settler may select a quiet, sunny, cheerful spot for his abode, and beneath unclouded skies and through perpetual summer, among vines, and fig-trees, and flowers, and all bright and pleasant things, pass life happily away.

PART SECOND.

CHAPTER I.

Description of the Golden Gate.-Origin of the name.-The Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun.-Rivers emptying into Suisun Bay.-Description of the adjacent country.-Indian tradition.-Remarkable fertility of the soil.-Farm produce and mode of farming.-Location of the City of San Francisco.-The name Yerba Buena-The first house built.-Disadvantages of the locality. No provision made for desirable public squares or parks.

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THE mid-entrance to the Bay of San Francisco lies in latitude 37° 48′ N., and longitude 122° 30′ W., from Greenwich. This is a strait, running nearly north-east, called Chrysopalæ, or the GOLDEN GATE, about five miles long, and of an average breadth of one and a half or two miles. The name Golden Gate" first appears in the "Geographical Memoir of California," and relative map, published by Col. Fremont in the spring of 1848. The term was descriptive, not of the literal golden regions within, then as yet undiscovered, but merely of the rich and fertile country which surrounded the shores of the bay, and of the wealth which the commerce of the Pacific, passing through the strait, would certainly give to the future great city of the place. The name was probably suggested by the Golden Horn of Constantinople. Since the discovery of the auriferous character of the country, the title has become of a still more happy nature; and its bestower must surely have had a prophetic soul, though he himself knew it not. At the narrowest point of the strait, where it is little more than a mile wide, the Spaniards had erected a small fort for the protection of the neighboring mission. This building is now in course of removal, to be speedily replaced

(let us hope) by a larger and stronger fortress for the adequate defence of the bay. The southern point of land, on the side of the ocean, is called in the Spanish language, Punta de los Lobos (Wolves' Point), and the northern, Punta Bonita (Pretty Point). A few small rocks, at all times quite visible, lie about the entrance, and along the coast of the strait; but the channel otherwise is very deep and free from obstruction. About twenty or thirty miles off the coast, and in a westerly direction from the Golden Gate, lie certain small rocky islands, called the Farralones, once favorite places for hunting seals and sea-otters by the Russians, and upon which that people had a small permanent settlement. Upon these islands the creatures mentioned are still to be found. A bar lies nearly across the mouth of the strait, upon which occasionally there is a heavy swell. Formerly this bar ran right across and within the actual limits of the strait, but during the last thirty years it has gradually shifted two miles farther to seaward, so that it now forms a kind of arch, altogether outside of the entrance, spanning from point to point of the strait. In the same period, a bank has likewise advanced from the south shore. By these natural operations the entrance channel to the bay has been much improved. On this subject it may be stated that all the shores in the mouth of the bay are liable to be washed off every year, by the combined strength of the wind, tides, local currents, and floods. In the great freshets of the spring of 1825 more than fifty yards of land were swept away to the westward of the fort.

The depth of water on the bar at low tide is considerable enough to permit the largest ship of war to safely cross it. The strait itself has a depth varying from five or six to sixteen fathoms and upwards. The shores are bold and rocky, and in some parts precipitous, swelling on the north side into mountains. of upwards of two thousand feet in height. The hills on the southern side are more of a sandy nature, and may be only three hundred or four hundred feet high. On both sides they are quite bare and barren. The strong winds and heavy fogs which constantly assail them, and their own sandy or rocky nature, have effectually prevented trees or luxuriant vegetation of any kind from growing. On the very summit, however, of the moun