y passed.

Several sails were visible, but they were so far away that it was vain
to hope to attract their attention. Three large boats could be seen away
to the northwest, skirting along shore and making their way toward San
Francisco as rapidly as muscle and oars could carry them. What recked
they whether the passengers were buried with the steamer, sunk in the
ocean, or left to perish on the desolate coast?

The Coast Range, which descends into California from Oregon, in some
places comes within twenty-five or thirty miles of the sea, while at
other times it recedes to over a hundred. The particular point where our
friends were suffered to land was rough, barren and rocky, and behind
them, with many peaks reaching the line of perpetual snow, rose the
noble Coast Range, between which and them stretched a smaller range of
mountains.

Around them the country appeared desolate and uninhabited. Howard and
Elwood were well acquainted with geography, and had a general idea of
California, although they could not be expected to know much of the
minor facts of the State. They were aware that at no great distance--but
whether north or south it was impossible to say--lay the missionary town
of San Luis Obispo, and between them and the Coast Range ran the Salinas
River, formerly known as the San Buenaventura, and a smaller chain of
mountains or highlands.

They knew, too, that after crossing the Coast Range, you descended into
the broad and beautiful Sacramento Valley, where abounded wild animals,
Indians, gold, silver, and the most exuberant vegetation. This was about
all they knew; and this, after all, was considerable. When persons
expect to make a journey to some distant country they are very apt to
learn all that they possibly can about it; and this was the way they
came to understand so much regarding the young State of California.

They had stood some little time conversing together when they saw Mr.
Yard approaching, clad in quite a respectable suit of black, albeit, as
a matter of course, it was thoroughly soaked with salt water.

"You are fortunate," remarked Howard.

"Yes," he laughed; "what strange beings we are! Do you see that elderly
gentleman yonder, with his hands in his pockets walking back and forth
as though he expected some arrival from the sea?"

The personage alluded to could be easily distinguished from the others.

"Well, his berth was next to mine. When the alarm of fire was first
heard he spru