382 Transactions of the 



what is now known as Old San Diego. Here were a few hundred 

 inhabitants, principally Mexicans, living almost entirely in adobe build- 

 ings, and subsisting on the traffic with tlie stock-raisers of the sur- 

 rounding country. A steamer arrived once a month from San Francisco, 

 and, as there was no wharf, passengers and freight were landed in 

 small boats and lighters. 



In May, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, Mr. A. E. Horton pur- 

 chased from the city authorities some eight hundred acres of land, 

 about three miles from the old town, a portion of which terminated on the 

 bay, ami laid it out into a town site. It comprises what is known as 

 New San Diego. He came here, as he expressed it, to build a city, and 

 he has succeeded in laying the solid foundation for one. Others have 

 been attracted hither, and have done much toward building up the 

 place; but to the energy and perseverance of this one njan is due in a 

 great degree its present commercial importance. He has helped in all 

 public enterprises, and alone built up some of the most needed and 

 important improvements, while his entire time and accumulated wealth 

 have thus far been devoted to making this a city which will, at no 

 distant day, be one of marvelous beauty and enduring stability. 



LOCATION OF HARBOR, STATISTICS, ETC. 



San Diego harbor is situated in latitude thirt3'-two degrees forty 

 minutes north, and longitude one hundred and seventeen degrees twelve 

 minutes west, the mouth of the harbor being about eighteen miles from 

 the Mexican border. The channel of the bay curves to the southward, 

 and is navigable to within six or eight miles of the Mexican line. On 

 the west, protecting it from the prevailing winds, rises a high range of 

 hills, terminating at Point Lorn a, the highest lighthouse station on the 

 coast, while stretching between the bay and ocean is a peninsula from 

 one fourth of a mile to a mile in width, serving as a breakwater and 

 protecting the bay from the southeastern storms, leaving the harbor 

 perfectly landlocked, where vessels can lie at anchor during the wildest 

 storms as safely as in the calmest weather. 



The harbor has a channel twelve miles long, and an average of nearly 

 half a mile in width, with a depth at extreme low tide of from twenty to 

 fifty-one feet, while at the sides of this deep channel is as much more 

 available Avater, with a depth of from twelve to twenty feet, thus fur- 

 nishing jmehorage for. thousands of vessels. 



Professor George Davidson, Assistant United States Coast Survey, in 

 charge Pacific Coast, makes the following statement in reference to the 

 harbor: 



"There is a depth of twenty-two feet of water on the bar, at the 

 mean of the icwest low waters. The average rise and fall of tides is 

 three feet seven inches. The average rise and fall of Spring tides is 

 five feet. The average rise and fall of neap tides is two feet three 

 inches. The width of the channel over the bar carrying the foregoing 

 depth, is about six hundred yards; the distance across the bar, 

 between one hundred and two hundred yards. 



" The depth of water on San Diego bar compares favorably with the 

 depth on the entrances to the Atlantic harbors. Boston has about eigh- 

 teen feet; New York, twenty-three and a half feet; Philadelphia, eigh- 

 teen and a half feet; Charleston, Mobile, and New Orleans, less than 

 eighteen feet. 



