San Diego to San Francisco 175 



only about four hundred dollars, for all our 

 expenses, for over six hundred miles. But our out- 

 lay will be small, for with all the assistance of the 

 officers, which has been most liberally given, we 

 have only secured half rations of flour and pork; 

 we are so accustomed to doing without sugar and 

 coffee, that we scarcely care for it. 



November Jth. We were off at daylight 

 according to custom, and followed the trail over 

 hill and hollow, with an occasional valley. At 

 times the ocean was in full view, its soft blue hori- 

 zon line melting into the clear, cloudless sky. To 

 our right, high over the Mission of St. Louis del 

 Rey, smiled, glistening in snowy purity, the highest 

 peaks of the Snowy Mountains, Sierra Nevada. 

 The soil is black loam, and the bottoms still 

 blacker, but on this day's travel much of the soil 

 has been salt. 



Seeing a few ducks alight at a little lake, almost 

 like a running stream, I went after them, and found 

 some hundreds of gadwalls, and bald-pates, and 

 in half an hour had sufficient for all our company, 

 which I need not tell you we enjoyed, though not 

 cooked at Baltimore "a la Canvasback." 



Hundreds of California marmots are seen daily, 

 at a distance looking like a common squirrel, so 

 much so that the men all call them squirrels; their 

 color varies very much, being every shade of grey 

 and reddish brown. 



