IN THE PACIFIC. 207 



In compliance with our instructions we took 

 our departure on the 28th of October, and 

 steaming out of Esquimalt Harbour found our- 

 selves in a dense fog in the Straits of San Juan 

 de Fuca. The fog accompanied us almost all 

 the way to San Francisco, where we arrived 

 after a quick run of four days. These fogs are 

 a very serious drawback to the navigation of 

 this coast. The shores of California, more 

 especially in the vicinity of San Francisco, are 

 often enveloped in them for weeks together, and 

 many a good ship has been lost in consequence 

 when almost at her destination. The coast is 

 admirably supplied with lighthouses and power- 

 ful steam fog-horns ; the latter may be beard 

 ten miles off on a calm day. So thick was the 

 fog off the entrance to the port that we passed 

 through the Golden Gates without seeing the 

 land on either side, and anchored in the harbour 

 at daylight of the 1st of November. The fog 

 cleared away soon afterwards, showing us the 

 harbour in all its noble proportions, with crowds 

 of clippers waiting for their cargoes of grain for 



