background the lofty Sierra, upheaved in crumpled folds from primeval ocean. The intervening space is somewhere overspread with hills and vales, but for the most part comprises an oblong plain, the Valley of California, the northern portion being called the Sacramento Valley, and the southern the San Joaquin Valley, from the names of the streams that water the respective parts. The prospect thus presented opens toward the setting sun.

Humanity here is varied. There is already round San Francisco Bay raw material enough of divers types to develop a new race, howsoever inferior the quality might be. It is a kind of refuse lot, blown in partly from the ocean, and in part having percolated through the mountains; yet there is amidst the chaff good seed that time and events might winnow. But time and events are destined here to be employed for higher purpose, in the fashioning of nobler metal.

Of the condition of the aborigines I have spoken elsewhere, and shall presently speak again. So far the withering influence of a strange civilization upon the true proprietors of the soil had emanated from Mexican incomers. Now a stronger phase of it is appearing in another influx, which is to overwhelm both of the existing races, and which, like the original invasion of Mexico, of America, is to consist of a fairhued people from toward the rising sun. They come not as their predecessors came, slowly, in the shadow of the cross, or aggressively, with sword and firelock. Quietly, with deferential air, they drop in asking hospitality; first as way-worn stragglers from trapping expeditions, or as deserting sailors from vessels prowling along the coast in quest of trade and secrets. Then compact bands of restless frontier settlers slip over the border, followed by the firmer tread of determined pioneers, who wait for strength and opportunity. Not being as yet formally ceded, the land remains under a mingled military-civil government, wherein Hispano-Californians still control local

MATERIALS FOR SOCIETY.

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management in the south, while in the north men from the United States predominate.

These later arrivals are already nearly equal numerically to the former, numbering somewhat over 6,000, while the Hispano-Californians may be placed at 1,000 more. The ex-neophyte natives in and about the ranchos and towns are estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000, with twice as many among the gentile tribes. The new element, classed as foreign before the conquest of 1846, had from 150 in 1830 grown slowly till 1845, after which it took a bound, assisted by over 2,000 who came as soldiers in the regular and volunteer corps, not including the naval muster-rolls. These troops served to check another sudden influx contemplated by the migrating Mormons, whose economic value as colonists cannot be questioned, in view of their honesty and thrift. An advance column of about 200 had come in 1846, followed by the Mormon battalion in the United States service, 350 strong, of which a portion remained. The first steady stream of immigrants is composed of stalwart, restless backwoodsmen from the western frontier of the United States; self-reliant, and of ready resource in building homes, even if less enterprising and broadly utilitarian than those who followed them from the eastern states; the latter full of latent vivacity; of strong intellect, here quickening under electric air and new environment; high-strung, attenuated, grave, shrewd, and practical, and with impressive positiveness.

By the side of the Americanized Anglo-Saxon, elevated by vitalizing freedom of thought and intercourse with nature, we find the English representative, burly of mind and body, full of animal energy, marked by aggressive stubbornness, tinctured with brusqueness and conceit. More sympathetic and selfadaptive than the arrogant and prejudiced Englishman, or the coldly calculating Scot, is the omnipresent, quick-witted Celt, and the easy-going, plodding German, with his love of knowledge and deep solidity of

mind. Intermediate between these races and the native Californian stands the pure-blooded Spaniard, wrapped in the reflection of ancestral preeminence, and using his superior excellence as a means to affirm his foothold among humbler race connections. An approximate affinity of blood and language here paves the way for the imaginative though superficial Frenchman and Italian, no less polite than insincere, yet cheerful and aesthetic. A few Hawaiian Islanders have been brought over, and are tolerated until prouder people press them back and under.

Even now events are giving a decisive predominance to the lately inflowing migration, by reason of the energy displayed in the rapid extension of industrial arts, notably agriculture, with improved methods and machinery, and growing traffic with such standardbearers of civilization as the public press and a steamboat. So far this influx has confined itself to the central part of the state, round San Francisco Bay and northward, because the gateway for the immigration across the plains opens into this section, which moreover presents equal if not superior agricultural features, and greater commercial prospects. The occupation of the south by a different race serves naturally to point out and affirm the limits.

San José, founded as a pueblo within the first decade of Spanish occupation, and now grown into a respectable town of about 700 inhabitants, is the most prominent of the northern settlements wherein the Hispano-Californian element still predominates. Notwithstanding the incipient greatness of the city at the Gate, San José holds high pretensions as a central inland town, on the border line between the settled south and the growing north, with aspirations to supplant Monterey as the capital. This accounts in a measure for the large inflowing of foreigners, who have lately acquired sufficient influence to elect the alcalde from among themselves, the present incumbent being James W. Weeks. The fertile valley around counts

among its numerous farmers several of them, notably the Scotch sailor, John Gilroy,' who in 1814 became the first foreigner permanently to settle in California, and Thomas W. Doak, who arrived two years later, the first American settler. North of San José and the adjoining Santa Clara mission,' where Padre Real holds out manfully against claimants, are several settlers clustering round the present Alviso. Westward Rafael Soto has established a landing at San Francisquito Creek, and Whisman has located himself a dozen miles below.1

Along the eastern slope of the peninsula leads a well-worn road past scattered ranchos, among which are those of John Cooper on San Mateo Creek, and John Coppinger on Cañada de Raimundo; and near by are Dennis Martin and Charles Brown, the latter having just erected a saw-mill."

San Francisco, at the end of the peninsula, however ill-favored the site in some respects, seems topographically marked for greatness, rising on a series of hills, with a great harbor on one side, a great ocean on the other, and mighty waters ever passing by to the outlet of the wide-spread river system of the country. It is already in many respects the most thriving town in California, the prospective metropolis of the coast, with 200 buildings and 800 inhabitants, governed by Alcalde

'The town bearing his name, in the southern part of the valley, is situated on his former rancho. Other early settlers were Mat. Fellom, Harry Bee, John Burton, J. A. Forbes, J. W. Weeks, and Wm Gulnac, who in 1842 joined Weber in erecting a flour-mill.

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2 Brannan & Co. had a tannery at this place.

Including the families of Alviso, Berreyesa, Valencia, John Martin, and Leo Norris, the latter an American, on Cherro rancho.

'Near the present Mountain View. J. W. Whisman was in 1848 joined by I. Whisman. J. Coppinger lived for a time on Soto's rancho, married to his daughter. S. Robles had bought Santa Rita rancho from J. Peña.

5 Called Mountain Home. The last two had settled near the present Woodside. G. F. Wyman and James Peace were also in the same vicinity, the latter as lumberer. The leading grants were Las Pulgas of Luis Argüello, 35,000 acres; San Gregorio of A. Buelna, 18,000 acres; Buri Buri of I. Sanchez, 14,600 acres; Cañada de Raimundo of J. Coppinger, 12,500 acres; Cañada del Corte de Madera of M. Martinez, 13,000 acres. Other grants, ranging from 9,000 to 4,000 acres, were San Pedro, Corral de Tierra, Félix, Miramontes, Cañada Verde, San Antonio, Butano, and Punta del Año Nuevo, following southward.