SOCIETY. 61 



in the interior, looks forward to the day when he can enjoy 

 the fruits of his labor in the metropolis of the Pacific. There 

 is a multitude, a variety, and a rapid succession of entertain- 

 ments, unequaled by any city of the New World, save New 

 York. The most costly productions, and the greatest delica- 

 cies of all quarters of the globe, are here collected. Kearny 

 Street, though shorter than Broadway, is not less brilliant. 

 Our hotels are palatial in size, furniture, cost, and style of 

 management. When we see a city not yet out of her teens 

 rivaling in luxuries the capitals of Europe, what grandeur may 

 we not expect for her maturer years ? 



San Francisco has the misfortune of standing upon the bare, 

 treeless, and sandy point of a peninsula, where constant winds 

 render it a matter of difficulty to train up any shrubbery ex- 

 cept under the immediate shelter of a house or fence. T.he 

 city has few large private gardens, and its only large park is 

 still new and its trees young and small. The western portion 

 of the municipal territory is a waste of sand, and much of the 

 southern is a waste of high hills ; and yet for pleasant drives, 

 and romantic scenery in the vicinity, San Francisco has no su- 

 perior. The view from the Long Bridge on a quiet evening 

 is very pleasant, and without a parallel in the United States. 

 A beach with an uninterrupted surf like ours would make the 

 fortune of an Atlantic watering place. The sea lions are an 

 attraction, without their like elsewhere. Saucelito, north of 

 the Golden Gate, and only four miles distant, is a very roman- 

 tic place. 



San Francisco has a number of views unsurpassed for extent 

 in the vicinity of large cities. Rome had seven hills : the me- 

 tropolis of California has we know not how many. It may be 

 said that she is divided into three amphitheaters, each enclosed 

 by hills on three sides : the amphitheater of Yerba Buena, 

 east of Russian Hill ; the amphitheater of Spring Valley, west 

 of Russian Hill ; and the amphitheatre of the Mission, south 

 of Pine Street Hill. From the hill-tops we see the city, and a 



