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Show 190 PERSONAL ADVENTURES localities; accordingly, I kept these objects in view, whilst I also gratified my curiosity by continuing my perarnbulations. In this same road, but nearer to the entrance of the n1ain street than I should say was, under any circumstances, altogether plea· sant, stood the co?~rrel of the Washington Market, being a spacious area of ground, en· closed with stakes, over 'vhich were stretched raw hides. Owing to the large number of cattle slaughtered here for the use of the in· habitants, the odour from this place was in· sufferable, and I quickened my pace until my olfactory organs became sensible of a purer atmosphere. I turned into the principal street, and soon came up to the Market itself, which is a wooden house, about thirty feet square, kept by an Arnerican. To n1y right, as I advanced, were some stores and hotels and a confectioner's ' shop of remarkably neat and clean appearance: . these were all one story, ,vooden buildings. One of the hotels was appropria.tely desjgnated as " The Colonnade." It was kept by a IN CAI.~IFORNIA. 191 volunteer nan1ed I-Inxley, and differed from every similar establi~hment in the to,vn, inasmuch as the proprietor allowed neither gambling nor drunkenness on his premises. To this the" Gotham Saloon," a little further on, offered a perfect contrast, for here there were several1nonte rooms and a large bowling .. alley, where persons who had a taste for the la.tter amusement might indulge in their favourite pastime for a dollar a game. This Saloon was likewise kept by t'vo volunteers, as was also the confectioner's by a fourth; so that three of the most noted houses in the town were rented by men who, a few months before, scarcely possessed anything save their enterprise and their industry, but who were no'v on the high road to opulence. The more credit was due to them, and others of their brethren whom fortune had similarly favoured because at ' ' first, they had deep-rooted prejudices to en-counter, which prudence and perseverance only could have enabled them to overcome . I came next to the Square or "Plaza" on one side of which, and front'i ng it, stood' the |