XX INTRODUCTION. 



are mostly owned here, and their wealth has contributed to beautify and 

 enrich the city. The establishment of a regular line of monthly steamers 

 to China and Japan, and the rapid progress of the Pacific Railway, with 

 the certainty of its speedy completion, have given confidence, attracted 

 population, and induced the investment of capital. Numerous branches 

 of manufacturing industry have been established. The commerce of the 

 city has continued to advance. The average number of houses erected 

 annually, during the last five years, has been about 1,500. It may safely 

 be said that no city shows greater signs of prosperity. San Francisco," in 

 proportion to size, is the busiest seaport in the world. The annual exports 

 are about $70,000,000 and the imports nearly as much; the manufactures 

 are worth nearly $20,000,000; the real estate sales amount to about 

 $12,000,000, and the cash value of land, building, and movable property, 

 is about $200,000,000, although assessed for taxation at only $80,000,000. 

 It sends away about forty tons of silver and six tons of gold every month — 

 the former metal in bars fifteen inches long and five inches square, the 

 latter in small bars about six inches long, three inches wide, and two inches 

 thick. Wagons loaded with the precious metals are seen in the streets 

 nearly every day. 



Most of the towns of the interior have grown but little during the last 

 five years. Sacramento suffered so severely from the flood that she 

 has not yet recovered. The Central Pacific Railroad, the Sacramento 

 Valley Railroad, and the California Pacific Railroad (from YaUejo) center 

 here; and the Western Pacific, the buildings of which has been long de- 

 layed, is to terminate here. The new State House, to cost more than 

 $1,000,000, will not be finished for a year or two. 



§ 23. Vallejo. — The construction of the California Pacific, and Napa 

 Valley Railroads has given a stimulus to Vallejo, which seems to be on 

 the point of getting the benefit of the natural advantages of its position. 

 Those advantages could do nothing for it without the assistance of rail- 

 roads ; but now that the roads are to be built, Vallejo is certain to be one 

 of the leading towns of the coast. Its exemption from earthquakes, the 

 probability that it will be a brick-built town, the consequent security 

 against great fires, the freedom from a heavy debt, the promise of free 

 wharfage, the certainty that it will be the terminus of the railroads from 

 Humboldt Bay and Oregon, and that it will'attract much of the travel and 

 freight from Sacramento, and the possibility, or as many view it, the 

 probability, that it will be the main western terminus of the Pacific Rail- 



