Angel Island, with its military post; and Fort Alcatraz, a rocky bubble
afloat in mid-channel and one mass of fortifications.

What an inland sea it is--the Bay of San. Francisco, seventy miles in
length, from ten to twelve in width; dotted with islands, and capable of
harboring all the fleets of all the civilized or uncivilized worlds! The
northern part of it, beyond the narrows, is known as the Bay of San
Pablo; the Straits of Carquinez connect it with Suisun Bay, which is a
sleepy sheet of water fed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

To the east is Yerba-Buena, vulgarly known as Goat Island; and beyond it
the Contra Costa, with its Alameda, Oakland, and Fruit Vale; then the
Coast Range; and atop of all and beyond all Mount Diablo, with its three
thousand eight hundred feet of perpendicularity, beyond whose summit
the sun rises, and from whose peaks almost half the State is visible and
almost half the sea,--or at least it seems so--but that's another
vision!




VI.

PAVEMENT PICTURES


We had been but a few days in San Francisco when a new-found friend,
scarcely my senior, but who was a comparatively old settler, took me by
the hand and led me forth to view the town. He was my neighbor, and a
right good fellow, with the surprising composure--for one of his