IMFRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA 2G3 



Everyone chatters in his own tongue, — the French, as 

 usual, being the loudest and the most noisy; and every- 

 one does as he is in the habit of doing at home and among 

 people of his own nationality. You can not imagine what 

 a motley crowd it is, nor how interesting it is to a quiet 

 observer, to note their doings. One might think himself 

 to be in a theater with several hundred actors from all 

 parts of the world before him. There being hardly any 

 distinction between classes in America, and absolutely 

 none here in California, most everybody travels as a deck 

 passenger, and the cabins are used only by ladies, or 

 persons who will pay for comfort. Aside from what we 

 see on board the steamer, the trip offers us but very little 

 of interest. The surrounding country is not interesting. 

 The banks of the river are low, the country is flat as far 

 as the eye can reach. Only here and there we note natural 

 hedges or some stunted willows; seldom groups of trees 

 or grazing cattle; at times we pass a loghouse or shanty 

 standing high on piles: that is all. The most interesting 

 part of the trip is the passage through the slough. This 

 slough is one of the many outlets of the Sacramento river 

 into Suisun Bay; it is the narrowest, but, on account of 

 its depth of water, the only navigable outlet. It is about 

 20 miles long and the banks are just above the water 

 level; but they are virgin soil, covered with the most lux- 

 urious vegetation, including all sorts of vegetable 

 growths, from the primeval oak down to the most intri- 

 cate masses of bush and vines that I have ever seen. 



Before I close my remarks about steamboats, I must 

 mention what I believe to be an English scheme but 

 which has entered so much into the very life here that 

 we can not exist without it. I mean the " opposition"— 

 the mutual efforts of two competitors in the same line 

 of business to ruin one another, by alternately lowering 

 the prices. It is especially among the owners of steam- 

 boats where the procedure is in vogue, and at times it is 

 carried to most ridiculous extremes. It was only the 

 other day that I came here from Sacramento for one dol- 

 lar; and a few weeks ago a new company advertised that 



