42 VOYAGE TO THE 



manded him not to permit any person to interfere 

 with the party either in its advance or on its return, 

 and that it was to be escorted from place to place by 

 a soldier. 



Leaving the mission of San Francisco, the party 

 receded from the only part of the country that is 

 wooded for any considerable distance, and ascended a 

 chain of hills about a thousand feet in height, where 

 they had an extensive view, comprehending the sea, 

 the Farallones rocks, and the distant Punta de los 

 Reyes, a headland so named by the expedition under 

 Sebastian Viscaino in 1602. The ridge which aiforded 

 this wide prospect was called Sierra de San Bruno, 

 and for the most part was covered with a burnt-up 

 grass, but such places as were bare presented to the 

 eye of the geologist rocks of sandstone conglomerate, 

 intersected by a few veins of jaspar. Winding through 

 the Sierre de San Bruno, they crossed a river of that 

 name, and opened out the broad arm of the sea which 

 leads from the port to Santa Clara, and is confined 

 between the chain they were traversing and the Sierra 

 de los Bolbones, distinguishable at a distance by a 

 peaked mountain 3,783 feet high by trigonometrical 

 measurement. Upon the summit of that part of the 

 sierra bordering the arm of sea called Estrecho de Siin 

 Jos^, a thick wood, named Palos Colorados from its 

 consisting principally of red cedar pine, stands con- 

 spicuous on the ridge. I mention this particularly, 

 and wish to call attention to the circumstance, as 

 the straggling trees at the south extreme of the wood 

 are used as landmarks for avoiding a dangerous rock 

 which we discovered in the harbour, and named after 

 the Blossom. 



About noon they reached a small cottage named 



