SOCIETY. 63 



According to Langley, the number of buildings in March, 

 1872, was 20,287, including 4,720 of brick, and 15,807 of 

 wood, and in the year following, six hundred additional build- 

 ings were erected. 



The first house was built in 1835, and the place was then 

 called Yerba Buena, Spanish for " good herb," applied to a 

 species of mint growing in the vicinity. In 1847 the name 

 was changed to San Francisco. In 1846 the population was 

 six hundred, and had grown to about one thousand in the 

 spring of 1848, when the gold fever broke out. During July, 

 August, and September, the town was deserted by many of its 

 residents ; but as the people became impressed with the rich- 

 ness and extent of the mines, and as adventurers began to ar- 

 rive from abroad, the population of the town increased, and 

 then suddenly it sprang from an obscure village to a world- 

 famous city. In May and June, 1850, and in the same months 

 the next year, great conflagrations swept away the wooden 

 shanties with which the main part of the city was built up ; 

 and it was not until the latter half of 1851, that the citizens 

 commenced to erect the numerous line brick stores which now 

 ornament the principal business streets. The sand ridges on 

 the site of the city were cut down, and the hollows were filled 

 in ; and the shallow cove in front of the mainland was also 

 filled in, and made the foundation for the busiest part of the 

 town. 



The hotels of San Francisco are famous for their excellence, 

 and also for their cheapness, as compared with houses of equal 

 comfort in New York, Chicago, Paris, and London. The Oc- 

 cidental and Cosmopolitan has each accommodations for 400 

 guests, the Lick House for 350, and the Grand for 300. The 

 price at each (and they are the most costly houses in San 

 Francisco) is $3 per day, for board and lodging. The tables 

 in all are supplied with an abundance and variety of the best 

 provisions, cooked in the best style. The Lick House dining 

 hall is the most elegant room of its kind in the United States, 



