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by and watch its growth and improvement, I got all ready for a start for Benicia, a little town on the Bay, from whence I intended to travel leisurely to Russian River. I had chosen this district as it abounded in game; and was in quite an opposite direction to the diggings-a visit to which I postponed until the ensuing summer, my object for the present being to encamp myself in some snug place in the mountains, and there live upon my gun, in all the enjoyment of a free life and the pleasures of the chase.

CHAPTER III.

BENICIA-BARNESA MAD BLOODHOUND HIS DEATH-GRASSHOPPERS-DON
RAYMOND A BLESSED CITY-WICKED MULES-"CAMPING OUT”—NAPA-
FOURTH OF JULY
IRASCIBLE BULL.

AGRICULTURISTS-SONOMA COMPETITION AN

July, 1850.

GREAT labour and capital have been expended on the wharves of San Francisco; there is little space left between these, and ships ride at their sides, and discharge their cargoes with as much rapidity and comfort as if they were in dock. The central wharf is nearly a mile in length, and from the end of this the river steamboats take their departure every day at four o'clock. At these times the wharf is always densely crowded, and it has always seemed strange to me that this every-day occurrence attracts a crowd without fail, although directly the boats are off, every man runs back to the city as if he had forgotten something. Perhaps they come down on the chance of an explosion, in which they are occasionally gratified; whether or no, there must be some

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CLIMATE-HIGH AND DRY.

37

airing the town, which as yet is unprovided with sewers. Then there creeps in steadily a heavy, fat fog, which takes up its quarters in the Bay every night, and disappears as before mentioned when the sun rises-under whose influence it does'nt melt like other fogs, but goes out to sea, and watches the town gloomily, until it is time to come in again.

These varieties of temperature during some months are methodically regular, but are not productive of sickness of any kind. The front of the city is extending rapidly into the sea, as water-lots are filled up with the sand-hills which the steam excavators remove. This has left many of the old ships, that a year ago were beached as storehouses, in a curious position; for the filled-up space that surrounds them has been built on for some distance, and new streets run between them and the sea, so that a stranger puzzles himself for some time to ascertain how the Apollo " and "Niantic" became perched in the middle of a street, for although he has heard of ships being thrown up "high and dry," he has probably sufficient nautical experience to observe that the degree of "height" and "dryness" enjoyed by the Apollo" and "Niantic" resulted from some other cause than the "fury of the gale." Leaving San Francisco for the present to return to it again by-and

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great attraction, for these curious people have to walk a mile to get there, and run a mile to get back! The "Senator" was our boat, and with one leg on board of her and the other buried in this observing crowd, I had to work briskly to get my provender on board-sacks of potatoes and flour, dogs, rifles, shovels, and pickaxes, were handed in with astonishing celerity, considering that I was not born a porter, and as the ship's bell ceased tolling we cast off from the wharf and threading the shipping at full speed, were soon steaming up the Bay. The "Senator" is a fine boat, but no description of her is requisite, as much finer have been described by travellers who have sailed up the Mississippi River. She came round the Horn, and being the first boat to arrive in the Bay, she realised most incredible sums of money for her owners.

In two hours we arrived at Benicia, and the steamer ran alongside of an old hulk connected by a gang-way with the shore. Through the unusual degree of Yankee nautical smartness shown on this occasion, I lost some bags of potatoes, for the boat had scarcely touched the hulk, than we were driven out of it carrying all we could, and the word was given to "go a-head" again, the gang-board was hauled in, our potatoes were still on board, there was no time for expostulation, and away steamed the

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