morning-the seventeenth day—an unusually long voyage because of our having in tow from Acapulco a disabled steamer, we were off Point Anno Nueva, thirty-eight miles beyond which brought us to the rocky Point San Pedro; thence the coast line dips slightly to the eastward, and ten miles further we entered that celebrated inlet to mineral and commercial wealth, the Golden Gate, which, in eleven years, has excited a greater interest, and become better known to nations, than any other geographical point on the map of the world in a like period. Two miles and a quarter wide at its entrance, between Point Bonita on the north and Point Lobos on the south, and extending eastward a distance of two miles and a half, with a bold, abrupt, rocky shore on the left as you enter, and a somewhat lower and undulating shore line on the right, there is a gradual diminution of the width of the passage, until one mile only separates Fort Point on the south, on which stands a formidable fortification, and Lime Point opposite, the northern pillar of the narrow inlet, a spot somewhat renowned in the annals of senatorial speculation. These two and a half miles of funnel-shaped entrance form the magnificent portal appropriately called Golden, for through it the white-winged messengers of the sea are perpetually passing, bringing the riches of commerce, and bearing away the wealth of exhaustless mines. Four miles within the gate, guarded midway the channel of the bay by another fortress of great strength, which crowns the Island of Alcatraz, there is brought into view, on doubling North Point to the right, the young Queen City of the Pacific, occupying a level space reclaimed from the bay at the foot of steep hills, whose crescentic sweep belts a dense mass of substantial buildings; while scattering houses climb the surrounding heights, showing the resolution and perseverance with which the citizens of San Francisco are surmounting the natural difficulties of placing here the emporium of western commerce. Such she is, as attested by the forest of masts swaying to and fro, responsive to the swell of the proud waters whose chief adornment they are, and giving to the winds the banners of a varied commerce, destined ere long to swell to an unsurpassed trade with five hundred millions of people of Eastern Asia and its adjacent islands, long

a sealed volume in the history of national intercourse and progress.

For a distance of several miles before entering "The Heads," as the outer limits of the funnel-shaped mouth of the Golden Gate are called, the crowning hills of the otherwise black and bleak-looking seashore lifted up their cultivated fields, to look out upon the expanse of ocean as if to challenge a comparison of its azure beauty with their own rich emerald. And telegraph poles, too, standing at intervals upon the wavy summits of distant heights, outlined against the sky like mile-stones on the highway of advancing civilization, with stations and lighthouses; and all around below, swift pilot-boats, hovering about a fleet of inward and outward-bound vessels, pursuing their silent and trackless way; these served to tell us that we had passed from the dominion of the Spanish-American to that of the Anglo-American; from the proofs of degeneracy coming of mixed breeds, to those of the exalting influence of preserved purity of superior race; from the region of indolence and sensuality to that of industry and intelligence; from countries of oppression and intolerance to one, let us hope, of unchanging liberty, liberality, and law.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO-BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO-BAY OF SAN PABLO-MARE ISLAND STRAIT OF CARQUENEZ-BENICIA-SUISUN BAY-SACRAMENTO RIVER-CITY OF SACRAMENTO COAST RANGE MOUNTAINS-FEATHER RIVER-MARYSVILLE.

It has required but a brief survey of surroundings to bring me to the conclusion that my mode of journalizing must be changed. An old America has been seen "of gray and leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells," and where moral sense seems irresponsive to the inspiration of a lofty civilization. In examining what "Young America" is doing with that part of the hemisphere into which he is infusing a new life, and the resources of which he is developing in a manner to astonish the world; where change and progress are written upon every thing, and the realities of to-morrow may contradict the descriptions of to-day, we must deal more in generalities than specialities. In this manner alone will my California narrative of what I saw, avoid the ridicule to which it might otherwise be subjected by the presentation of “dissolving views," whose realities, apart from nature, are merged in other scenes as the eye rests upon the picture. But a few years have passed since this State was peopled by a few wild Mexican half-breed herdsmen, who roved over ranches bounded only by mountain ranges, or the streams which broke from their untrodden solitudes, to wander through immense plains, and who slaughtered tens of thousands of cattle for hides and tallow alone. Now four hundred thousand inhabitants, nearly all of Caucasian nationalities, led and stimulated by American example and success, are disembowelling the earth of its mineral treasures; developing unsurpassed agricultural wealth, and establishing the means of free intercommunication

between all parts of the State, and with neighboring territories. Looking at San Francisco, the traveller beholds apparently insuperable barriers to improvement disappearing as if by the touch of an enchanter's wand-lofty hills vanishing before the steam-paddy, which sends its trains of railroad cars to fill up marsh and shallow; wooden buildings of earlier date seeking suburban retirement with wheel and lever, to give place to storehouses of iron and granite; palatial residences springing up as if by magic, embowered in shrubbery and flowers; hotels of metropolitan dimensions, succeeding each other with a rapidity of construction showing an extraordinary flood of travel and pressure of demand; eighty-three thousand people, a dense mass of busy artisans, enterprising merchants, and men of varied professions, cultivating the arts of peace, promoting the interests of trade and of social happiness, and establishing the empire of knowledge and civilization, where, but twelve years ago, the eddying sand, sporting in the gale that rushed through the wind-gap of the coast range, built its mimicry of nature's grander scenery undisturbed by man's intrusion; and where the wavelet, unbroken by the rollicking oar, kissed the silent shore with silver ripple.

Standing upon Telegraph Hill, or upon Rincon Hill, the north and south horns of a deep crescent of hills, the concavity of which was formerly a harbor where vessels rode at anchor and discharged their cargoes, and looking down upon the warehouses, foundries, and machine shops, now occupying the entire space, pushing the water front to a straight line from one extreme point to the other, the observer is amazed at the immense results of labor and perseverance in a brief time. Yet San Francisco must be regarded as in a transition state, for here linger still many mean-looking houses, the mementoes of its days of hurry and hardship; ungraded, unpaved, or defectively planked and dangerous streets; badly built and unfinished wharves intercepting filthy pools, the receptacles of garbage and offal, and sources of evil to a magnificent water front, which should be carefully guarded for the uses of the vast shipping destined to adorn it if it be not destroyed by neglect or unwise legislation. Sand hills and drifts also remain in populous thorough

fares, recalling experiences of desert travel; and pioneer customs of all sorts, illustrative of enterprise and adventure, intentness, selfishness, rudeness, recklessness, jostlings, and general abandon of go-ahead-a-tiveness, ignoring collaterals and consequences. But while we trace in these San Francisco as she was, yet can we not fail to contemplate her as she is to be, in the wide and well-paved avenues seen in the rapidly improving parts of the city, bordered by substantial edifices and fancy stores filled with the products of Asia and its isles, competing with the manufactures of Europe and America for the golden prize that California holds forth to the trade of the world. As seen, too, in the scattered clusters of architectural residences which would grace the "west end" of Atlantic cities, adorned with gardens of perennial foliage, and flowers that never cease to bloom; in the improving material, style, and arrangement of public structures; in beautiful churches looking from surrounding heights upon the outspread proof of man's progress, and the improvement of his moral nature which they have had their share in elevating; in the uninterrupted, abundant, and cheap supply of pure water, flowing from distant sources to every door, a springtide of health and enjoyment, when but a few years since a draught was a costly boon; in well-lighted streets; in an efficient police to. control the disturbing elements of society, without, as formerly, inconsistently trampling law under foot to punish lawlessness, thus justifying in practice what it professes to denounce, and violating the sanctity of a principle which is the only sovereign of a freeman, and, professing to obey which, he cannot disregard in practice without the establishment of a precedent, eventually detrimental to the cause of constitutional liberty. We see the foreshadowing of her future in city passenger railroads, places of rational amusement, and public gardens of unusual attractiveness; in markets of great variety, abundance, rarely equalled quality, and moderate prices the fruits and vegetables generally of California attaining a wonderful growth, and the salmon of its waters being unequalled; in numerous, excellent, and cheap restaurants; in public schools, libraries, asylums, hospitals, and an active fire department. In all these the growth of twelve years-no, not more than nine years, for