416 RESOUPwCES OF CALIFORNIA 



cisco, with which city there is regular steamboat communica- 

 tion. The town is one mile from dry land, on the edge 

 whereof, immediately north of Suisun, lies Fairfield, which 

 is the county seat, and has about five hundred inhabitants. 

 Fairfield is on the route of the projected Benicia and Marys- 

 ville railway. 



§ 291. Benicia. — Benicia is situated on the northern side 

 of the Straits of Carquinez. It was laid out in 1847, and for 

 a time it aspired to be the great commercial city of the coast, 

 which aspiration it did not abandon until as late as 1853. It 

 was twice made the state capital, and twice deserted by the 

 legislature. It has about one thousand inhabitants. The 

 houses are scattered about so far from each other that the 

 town is called, in sport, " The City of Magnificent Distances." 

 A ferry-boat crosses the strait to Carquinez about six or eight 

 times every day. The town site is composed of low bare hills. 

 The climate is very windy. 



§ 292. Napa. — Napa was laid off in 1848 by Nathan 

 Coombs at the ford of Napa River, on the road from Benicia 

 to Sonoma. In those days there were no bridges or ferries, 

 and the position of the ford determined the location of the 

 town. Now the ford is never used, but the investment of 

 capital has made the town permanent. If mere natural ad- 

 vantages were to be taken into account, the town would be 

 at Suscol, which is six miles nearer to the bay, and always ac- 

 cessible by small steamers, while at low tide the boats must 

 stop several miles below Napa. The population of the place 

 is about one thousand. The houses are of wood and brick, 

 and neatly built. 



§ 293. Crescent City. — Crescent City is a seaport of six 

 hundred inhabitants, fifteen miles south of the Oregon line. 

 The j)lace was founded in 1853, with the expectation that be- 

 cause of its proximity to the mines of the Klamath and Rogue 

 River basins, it would become an important commercial point 

 for the imports of Southern Oregon and Northern California. 

 Its founders, however, were disappointed in this expectation. 



