152 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Tamalpais, or Mount Tamalpais, ten miles north of San 

 Francisco, has an elevation of 2,604 feet. The summit can be 

 reached on horseback, and commands a fine view of San Fran- 

 cisco and San Pablo Bays, with many of their tributary val- 

 leys, and of the summit of the Sierra Nevada. 



Mount St. Helena, ten miles, by the trail, from Calistoga, 

 has an elevation of 4,343 feet, and commands an extensive 

 view, but far inferior to that from Diablo, the adjacent country 

 being less fertile, higher, and mountainous. 



Loma Prieta, Mount San Bruno, Mount Hamilton, the 

 Mission Peak, (in the county of San Francisco) Castle Peak, 

 Grizzly Hill, near Grass Valley, Mount Gabilan, and Uncle 

 Sam Mountain, near Clear Lake, all look down on interesting 

 scenes. 



111. Son Francisco and Vicinity. In many respects the 

 appearance of San Francisco is decidedly unprepossessing to 

 the strange visitor. It stands at the end of a peninsula, much 

 of which is bare, rocky hill and loose sand. We must go 

 twelve miles before we reach any large body of tillable soil. 

 As seen from the deck of a vessel entering the harbor, between 

 July and November, the place looks like desolation and cheer- 

 lessness. The streets, the houses, and the hills are brown, and 

 only here and there, at long intervals, do we get a glimpse of 

 a little garden. 



But after looking about a week or two, the stranger gets 

 better impressions. The lack of shade trees in the streets and 

 gardens, and even in the public squares, is explained by the 

 coolness of the summer climate, and the general desire to get 

 all possible sunshine on average July days. There is pleasure 

 in thinking of a city to which, and not from which, we wish 

 to flee in the dog-days. And then, as we go to the more fash- 

 ionable residence streets, we find numerous elegant gardens, 

 luxuriant in a vegetation that could not endure the winter of 

 Washington and St. Louis. The delicate and beautiful Euro- 

 pean roses, (the Pauline, the Laflfay, the Agrippina, the Mai- 



