rgoes. Railroads cannot be constructed unless long and expensive
surveys have first been made to determine the route which Nature
has made the easiest between two given points.

The character of the climate and geographic features of a given
country determine whether it shall become noted for agricultural
productions, mining industries, manufactures, or commerce. The
locations of the cities and towns and the roads connecting them
depend upon geographic conditions. There is not an occupation of
any importance in which people engage at any particular place that
is not dependent in large degree for its success upon the conditions
which Nature has imposed upon that place.

A city will not grow up at a given point unless the geographic
conditions are favorable. There must be some natural reason to
induce people to gather in large numbers in one place. At one spot
there are facilities for manufacturing, such as water-power and coal,
and easy means of communication with other parts of the world. At
another, the only reason for the growth of a city is the existence
of rich mines. A third place may be conveniently located in the
midst of a rich agricultural region, where it is easy to bring
in supplies and ship out the products of the soil.

A study of the founding and growth of some of the cities of the
West, and particularly of the Pacific slope, will bring out many
interesting facts.

San Francisco is the metropolis of the Pacific; its population
will soon reach half a million. If we look back seventy-five years
we find San Francisco an unimportant Mexican military post and
the seat of one of the smaller missions. Monterey, the capital
of the province of California and one of the two leading towns
(Los Angeles being the other), apparently had all the advantages
in the race for supremacy.

In date of discovery (1603) Monterey Bay has the advantage of more
than one hundred and fifty years over San Francisco Bay. It is
difficult to understand why the different navigators who sailed
north along the coast failed to discover California's most magnificent
bay. Sir Francis Drake went by it, evidently not seeing the narrow
opening between the headlands now known as the Golden Gate. Vizcaino,
after discovering Monterey Bay, also passed by and anchored where
Drake had stopped, in a little bay now called Drake's Bay, a few
miles north of San Francisco Bay.

After the founding of San Diego, in 1769, a party started overland
for M