in of
corn; and the next day before the dawn we were lying-to upon the Oakland
side of San Francisco Bay. The day was breaking as we crossed the
ferry; the fog was rising over the citied hills of San Francisco; the
day was perfect--not a ripple, scarce a stain, upon its blue expanse;
everything was waiting, breathless, for the sun. A spot of cloudy gold
lit first upon the head of Tamalpais, and then widened downward on its
shapely shoulder; the air seemed to awaken and began to sparkle; and
suddenly

"The tall hills Titan discovered,"

and the city of San Francisco, and the bay of gold and corn, were lit
from end to end with summer daylight.

THE OLD AND NEW PACIFIC CAPITALS

THE OLD AND NEW PACIFIC CAPITALS

I

MONTEREY

The Bay of Monterey has been compared by no less a person than General
Sherman to a bent fishing-hook; and the comparison, if less important
than the march through Georgia, still shows the eye of a soldier for
topography. Santa Cruz sits exposed at the shank; the mouth of the
Salinas river is at the middle of the bend; and Monterey itself is
cosily ensconced beside the barb. Thus the ancient capital of California
faces across the bay, while the Pacific Ocean, though hidden by low
hills and forest, bombards her left flank and rear with never-dying
surf. In front of the town, the long line of sea-beach trends north and
north-west, and then westward to enclose the bay. The waves which lap so
quietly about the jetties of Monterey grew louder and larger in the
distance; you can see the breakers leaping high and white by day; at
night, the outline of the shore is traced in transparent silver by the
moonlight and the flying foam; and from all round, even in quiet
weather, the low, distant, thrilling roar of the Pacific hangs over the
coast and the adjacent country like smoke above a battle.

These long beaches are enticing to the idle man. It would be hard to
find a walk more solitary and at the same time more exciting to the
mind. Crowds of ducks and sea-gulls hover over the sea. Sandpipers trot
in and out by troops after the retiring waves, trilling together in a
chorus of infinitesimal song. Strange sea-tangles, new to the European
eye, the bones of whales, or sometimes a whole whale's carcase, white
with carrion-gulls and poisoning the wind, lie scattered here a