room, which is the orchestral gallery. Through a passage thirty or forty feet long by eight wide, near which Nature has placed a chaste marble baptismal font, we entered a crystal chapel of exquisite beauty. It is oval shaped, about a hundred feet long, thirty wide, and twenty-five feet high. Its walls and ceiling are frescoed with permeating water stains; the former being also richly decorated, pilastered, and pannelled with crystal limestone frostwork, resembling varied forms of coral, floss, scalloped and spiculated shells, moss, leaflets, and multiform frosty vegetation; while the marble ceiling, repeating this beautiful sculpture, is hung likewise with crystalline stalactite pendants, giving it the appearance of a magnificent vaulted chandelier studded with myriads of diamonds. Toward the lower end of the chapel the arched roof opens into an irregular oval dome, the deep shadow of whose interior contrasts strangely with surrounding splendor. Near the entrance to this apartment is a rude stone stairway, by which the visitor may ascend to what is called the pulpit of the chapel. This stands on a pedestal of limestone, and looks like an oval-shaped mass of alabaster, seven or eight feet high and three or four in diameter, of rare chiselling and graceful proportions, from the lower part of which falls an inimitable semi-transparent drapery of like material. The appearance of this chamber when illuminated by torches is gorgeous, and reminds one of the gem-lit idealities of romance. It was natural to feel the inspiration of such a sublime revelation of Supreme Power, and excusable to strike a chord where for thousands of years silence has reigned, none having awakened the sleeping echoes of this sealed solitude. Cavern of the crystal hall, Gleaming with a mirror'd wall, Nameless gems of radiant hue ? Strangely carved and frescoed too! Who, thy coral cornice made? ALABASTER CAVE. Who upheaved yon shadowy dome- O'er thy alabaster throne, Wrapped in marble drapery? Robed in light man may not see, Ere His night its stars unroll'd! Lo! the mystery of God, On the rock thy foot hath trod, Bow thy knee! "The work is Mine!" 429 There being no hotel immediately at hand we proceeded on our way without further delay, one mile bringing us to the El Dorado valley turnpike, and then ten miles to Folsom, crossing Bald Mountain Ridge, so called from its entire destitution of trees, composed of rolling hills with an extensive substratum of limestone. From this elevated ridge a fine view of distant scenery is had, especially of the great Sacramento valley, unfolding in the spring its mantle of verdure at the foot of the mountain, with Sutter's Buttes in the distant northwest, and Mount Diablo in the southwest looking proudly down on the scene of beauty. Having descended the ridge, the mining district of Nigger Hill was passed, a half mile beyond which, by a wire suspension bridge two hundred feet in length, we crossed the south fork of the American River—at a point twenty-eight miles west of where gold was first discovered in California on that stream-and entered the town of Folsom, on its left bank, in Sacramento County. Folsom has a population of twenty-five hundred persons, many of whom are Chinese, a people thus far seen in considerable numbers wherever we have been in this State. They are diligent seekers after the precious metal which has attracted them from their far-off home, and are usually found working the abandoned claims of others in the primitive methods of pan and cradle; preserving their national habits of dress in loose coarse cottons, long queues, skull-caps, or little peaked felt hats, and slip-shod shoes; they eat rice, drink tea, and the people hereabouts say steal pigs and poultry. Most of them are hired in China by capitalists for a term of years. The capitalists pay all their expenses, farm out their labor for their own benefit, and according to contract send them back to China at the end of the specified term, dead or alive. They seem to be conceded hewers of wood and drawers of water, the slaves in fact of California. Although there are gold diggings about Folsom, they are not as rich as those found elsewhere. Valuable granite quarries in the immediate vicinity are worked to great advantage. And it is the great central point from which the lines of travel diverge to all parts of the State, north, east, and south-a place of hurry, bustle, and excitement-without temptation to tarry; and hence after a night's rest we took the 7 A. M. railroad train for Sacramento, and passing over a thickly-settled and well-cultivated level country, a distance of twenty-two miles, reached the capital in time for breakfast and the noon steamboat to San Francisco, where we arrived at 10 P. M. CHAPTER XXVI. TRIP TO THE SOUTHWARD-WEST SIDE OF THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO-SAN BRUNOSAN MATEO-REDWOOD-VALLEY OF SANTA CLARA-TOWN OF SANTA CLARA-SAN JOSÉ-EAST SIDE OF THE BAY-WARM SPRINGS-OLD MISSION OF SAN JOSÉ ·CENTREVILLE-ALVARADO-ALAMEDA COUNTY-SAN LEANDRO OAKLAND-CONTRA COSTA COUNTY-ITS COAL BEDS-MARTINEZ-PACHECO-MONTE DIABLO-CARBONDALE AND ADJACENT COAL MINES. NEXT morning another exploration was proposed, this time in a southerly direction on the west side of the Bay of San Francisco, through the counties of San Francisco and San Mateo, to the Valley of San José-also called Santa Clara, from its being in the county of that name. Starting from the city of San Francisco in the 12 M. stage-coach, we skirted for eight miles the bay shore, the road winding also along foot-hills of the Coast Range, sometimes over their slight acclivities, at others along the level margin of little water-inlets, and in places stealing from green slopes barely sufficient space along which to wind with cautious step above the tide that washed their rocky base. Luxuriant quebradas bordered the road-side, and wild flowers were scattered broadcast over the miniature prairies we sometimes crossed. Many well-enclosed ranches were seen, and herds of fat cattle revelled on the vernal grass. Fifteen miles from San Francisco the coast-station of San Bruno unrolls its cultivated fields for the traveller's admiration. And the village of San Mateo at twenty miles' distance from the city, in natural scenery, vale and lawn, grove and streamlet, and in the decoration of art, in cottage, garden, path, enclosure, flowers, shrubbery, and general culture, presents a picture of beauty rarely equalled. The “dirt-road" over which we travelled, must become very heavy and slow of passage in the wet season; but a railroad, for the building of which the requisite sum has already been subscribed, will soon place San Francisco and San José in uninterrupted and rapid communication. Considerable live-oak and post-oak timber was seen on this part of the route; and immense droves of cattle were passed on their way to the market of the metropolis, where, I was informed, the price ranges from one to five cents per pound on the hoof, during the entire year. As we approached the village of Redwood, so called from the valuable timber of that name in the neighboring Coast Range Mountain, myriads of ground squirrels were seen said to infest many regions of California, and to be very destructive to crops. Redwood is thirty miles from San Francisco, and lies in a fine agricultural district. As the village of Mayfield, at the distance of thirty-five miles, was approached, the bay, which had been for some time lost sight of, was again seen a few miles to the east, with both ranges of the Coast Mountain, one on its east, and the other on its west side, plainly in view, embracing a valley which, as the bay becomes rapidly narrower toward its lower end, appeared on the west side to grow wider as we progressed toward the south, and to become continuous with that of Santa Clara; which soon after unfolded its surpassing beauty and agricultural wealth for our admiration until evening closed in just before reaching the town of Santa Clara, distant from San Francisco fifty miles. The present neat and flourishing little town of Santa Clara, of 1,500 inhabitants, is the seat of the old Catholic mission of the same name; the first established in the interior, after and beyond that of Monterey, and which afterwards fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of San Francisco. The establishment of the mission was due to the Jesuits; but on the suppression of that order by the Spanish Government, it fell into the hands. of the Franciscans, nearly all of whom connected with it having died, the archbishop transferred it again to the Jesuits, who by the events of political revolution were permitted to hold it, and, under a constitution guaranteeing religious liberty, still have it in possession. But these transfers of jurisdiction by no means imply a corresponding conveyance of domain; for, |