232 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



the " Golden Gates," (as the entrance from the Pacific 

 to the succession of bays connected with the harbor 

 of San Francisco is termed) is about the same as San 

 Francisco. The harbor is one of the safest and most 

 commodious in the world, and the commissioners 

 appointed by the general government to make surveys 

 and decide upon the best location, have to recommend 

 Mare's Island, half a mile from Vallejo, as the naval 

 depot of the United States in California. The climate 

 of Vallejo is delightful, and the place is never sub- 

 jected to those strong and cold northerly winds which 

 render San Francisco so disagreeable as a residence 

 and so dangerous as a commercial city. There is 

 plenty of marble for building purposes in the immediate 

 vicinity of Vallejo, and plenty of limestone at a con- 

 venient distance, and easily obtainable. The new 

 city will command a most beautiful view of San Pablo 

 Bay and of the country adjacent, and the Napa valley 

 (through which the Napa River flows, and near the 

 mouth of which the city is located,) and the Sonoma 

 valley in the vicinity are among the most fertile in 

 California. Near Vallejo are also mineral springs, 

 possessing similar properties, and said to equal the 

 celebrated Congress Springs at Saratoga. 



