we parted with mutual regret.
It was necessary for me to cross the bay by a ferry-boat to Oakland,
where the train is made up and starts for Sacramento. There was a
considerable crowd round the baggage-office, where I gave up my
trunks, and obtained, in exchange, two small brass checks which will
enable me to reclaim them on the arrival of the train at Omaha. I
proceeded down the pier and on to the ferry-boat. Indeed, I was on it
before I was aware. It looked so like a part of the wharf, and was so
surrounded by piles and wooden erections, that I did not know I was on
its deck, and was inquiring about its arrival to take us off, when I
found the huge boat gradually moving away from the pier!

[Illustration: _'Westward by Rail.' Longmans._ 1871.]

It was a regular American ferry-boat, of the same build fore and aft,
capable of going alike backwards or forwards, and with a long bridge
at each end, ready to be let down at the piers on either side of the
bay, so as to enable carts or carriages to be driven directly on to
the main deck, which was just like a large covered yard, standing
level with the wharf. Over this was an upper deck with a nice saloon,
where I observed notices stuck up of "No spitting allowed;" showing
that there was greater consideration for the ladies here than there
was on board the 'Moses Taylor,' where spittle and quids were
constantly shooting about the decks, with very little regard for
passers-by, whether ladies or gentlemen.

Steaming away from the pier, we obtained a splendid view of the city
behind us. The wharves along its front were crowded with shipping of
all sorts; amongst which we could observe the huge American
three-decker river steamers, Clyde-built clippers, brigs, schooners,
and a multitude of smaller craft. Down the bay we see the green hills
rising in the distance, fading away in the grey of the morning. Close
on our left is a pretty island, about half-way across the bay, in the
centre of which is a green hill,--what seemed to Australian eyes good
pasture ground; and I could discern what I took to be a station or
farmhouse.

In about an hour we found ourselves nearing the land on the eastern
shore of the bay, where we observe the railway comes out to meet us.
The water on this side is so shoal for a distance from the shore that
no ships of any considerable burden can float in it, so that the
railway is carried out on piles into the deep water for a distance of
nearly a mile.