docks. But the
Pacific mail dock had been reached and was out of control; and finally
China basin, which was filled in for a freight yard at the expense of
millions of dollars, had sunk into the bay and the water was over the
tracks. This was one of the greatest single losses in the whole
disaster.

Without sleep and without food, crowds watched all night Wednesday and
all day Thursday from the hills, looking off toward that veil of fire
and smoke that hid the city which had become a hell.

Back of that sheet of fire, and retreating backward every hour, were
most of the people of the city, forced toward the Pacific by the
advance of the flames. The open space of the Presidio and Golden Gate
park was their only haven and so the night of the second day found
them.

CHAPTER III.

THIRD DAY ADDS TO HORROR.

=Fire Spreads North and South Attended by Many
Spectacular Features--Heroic Work of Soldiers Under
General Funston--Explosions of Gas Add to General
Terror.=

The third day of the fire was attended by many spectacular features,
many scenes of disaster and many acts of daring heroism.

When night came the fire was raging over fifty acres of the water
front lying between Bay street and the end of Meiggs and Fisherman's
wharf. To the eastward it extended down to the sea wall, but had not
reached the piers, which lay a quarter of a mile toward the east.

The cannery and warehouses of the Central California Canneries
Company, together with 20,000 cases of canned fruit, was totally
destroyed, as also was the Simpson and other lumber companies' yards.

The flames reached the tanks of the San Francisco Gas Company, which
had previously been pumped out, and had burned the ends of the grain
sheds, five in number, which extended further out toward the point.

Flame and smoke hid from view the vessels that lay off shore vainly
attempting to check the fire. No water was available except from the
waterside and it was not until almost dark that the department was
able to turn its attention to this point.

At dusk the fire had been checked at Van Ness avenue and Filbert
street. The buildings on a high slope between Van Ness and Polk, Union
and Filbert streets were blazing fiercely, fanned by a high wind, but
the blocks were so sparsely settled that the fire had but a slender
chance of crossing Van Ness at that point.

Mayor Schmitz, who directed operations at that point, conferred with
the milita