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Show 158 PERSONAL ADVENTURES like the rose, and the rudeness of primitive nature has yielded to the transfonning touch of civilized man. Henceforward, its mission is at an end ; its form shrinks and dwindles into airy nothingness, and its loud tones fade away into the echo of a whisper, till lost in the rocky caverns that gave it ·birth. * * * * The town of San Francisco is situated on the south side of the entrance to the Bay, from which it is distant about six mile~, having op· posite to it an island called Goat's Island, (Yerba Buena) on account of the number of these anirnals found upon it. It is covered with abundance of grass and brushwood, and forms a conspicuous and picturesque object in the harbour, rising out of the centre of the clear waters, here and there deepened by the hold shadows of the surrounding hills. The flo'v and ebb of the tide here are sufficiently strong to bring a vessel to the anchorage in front of the town, and to carry it outside with· out the aid of wind or even aO'ainst an un· ' 0 favourable one. San Francisco itself is about IN CALIFORNIA. 159 fifty-five miles distant, in a direct line from the point where the Sacratnento and San J oachin rivers enter the Bay, the gold region commencing about twenty miles up the delta of the former stream. The site of the town is in a sort of irregular valley, surrounded by the lofty hills I have already mentioned, and presents, from the water-side, a confused spectacle of innutnerable houses, heterogeneous in form, substance, and arrangement. I was not yet, however, to make more intimate acquaintance with it, for our vessel lay at a considerable distance I from the landing-place, and our men were too anxious to go ashore, to wait until I could · collect my luggage, and make the necessary preparations for accompanying them in the boat. We had been boarded by a custom-house officer shortly after the anchor was cast, and I felt not a little pleased to recogniRe in him an old acquaintance. He had also visited the mines, having gone thither from San Fran- • ctsco; and I was indebted to him for much |