arry.

We left Virginia City that evening for Carson City and slept there,
glad to shake off the silver dust from our weary feet. The next day at
7 A.M. two carriages, one with four horses and the other with two, were
before the door, and we drove up the mountain, took the little
narrow-gage railroad which is there to carry the logs down to the lake.
Sitting on the front logs, we rode down the mountain. The big beams of
timber are brought to the mines in order to prop up the places where
the ore has been taken out. These logs do a lot of traveling. They are
cut on the other side of Lake Tahoe, dragged over the lake by a tug,
sawed the right length by a sawing-mill, then carried up the mountain
by this railroad and floated down by means of a wood trough, three feet
wide, for twenty-two miles to another railroad, thence to Virginia
City.

A steam-launch was waiting for us, and we cruised about this lovely
lake, which is of the bluest water and the greenest shadows you ever
saw. One sees a hundred feet down; the water is as clear as crystal. J.
talked fishing with the pilot, who promised to take him out fishing
with him. He caught a beautiful rainbow-trout (as they are called here)
from the launch. When he gets home he will tell you how big the biggest
fish was he lost.

We arrived at San Francisco at two o'clock. One of the men brought me
some splendid cherries, big as plums, and Johan's consul met us on the
ferryboat. This last was in a great hurry to get back to his home, as
he did not know whether it was a boy or a girl.

We were driven to the Palace Hotel, which is very fine. Each of us had
a complete apartment, _salon_, bed, and bathroom. Having been five days
and nights in the train, you may imagine we were tired. I was not only
tired, but dizzy and glad to go to bed.

Senator Sharon, who owns this hotel, sent us word begging us not to
make any engagement for Saturday and Sunday next, as he intends
inviting us to his country place. No bill is to be presented to us
here. We are not expected to pay for anything. We are his guests, and,
strange to say, not one of us knows him, excepting, of course, Mr.
Kasson.

The drive out to the cliffs is enchanting. I had never seen a live
sea-lion before, and here were thousands of them, barking, diving in
the water and wriggling out of it, and basking in the sun on the rocks.

General McDowell took us out for an early tour the next day in his
steam-launch. At five o'cloc