here on the
Continent have I seen such a main artery to any town. The Palace
Hotel in it is by far the largest and finest in America, and even
those we have here in Northumberland Avenue are more or less small in
comparison. It is an enormous, very lofty quadrangle, with inner
verandahs on each story, built round a spacious court, which is
glazed in at top of the building. I forget how many hundred bed-rooms
it contains. The interior is also a model of luxury and comfort. In
every department money has been lavishly spent, and the result is
that the Palace Hotel is possibly the largest and best in the world.
The charges also, considering the comforts offered, are by no means
high. I believe it was built by one man out of the enormous fortune
he accumulated in the first gold days, but what is the result of the
speculation I could not ascertain.

There is a large and very beautiful park outside the town. Trees,
shrubs, and flowers from all parts of the world are collected
therein, while for those that require tropical temperature huge glass
buildings are provided. All testifies to a luxurious growth, and the
smooth, closely-shaven, mossy grass is of a picturesque bright
emerald green. It is all artificial! Neither grass, shrubs, flowers,
or trees would grow at all did they depend on rain alone. Everything
is irrigated. Below the surface a network of waterpipes runs in all
directions with taps available everywhere. I was much struck by the
way the turf is watered. The water is forced with great power through
minute orifices in the large splay metal end of a hose, ascends some
thirty or forty feet, and falls exactly in the form of very fine
rain; thus every blade of grass is moistened. Wonderful indeed is the
effect as you stand at the park entrance and compare the scene
outside and within. The dry, baked soil, innocent of vegetation on
the one hand, the luxurious growth of many lands combined on the
other, interspersed with a green sward you long to fling yourself
down and roll on!

The Bay of San Francisco is the finest harbour in the world. The
navies of all nations could congregate and manoeuvre in it. It is
simply a huge inland salt-water lake communicating with the ocean.
There is only one entrance, the Golden Gates, possibly one-third of a
mile wide. It is commanded by fortifications, built on the rocks on
either side, but these being stone appeared to me ill adapted to the
enormous forces gunnery can exert to-day.