FROM LOS ANGELES TO SAN FRANCISCO. 207 



experience. Of course, in this age of steam these romancers 

 cannot get up much excitement in regard to calms, unless 

 they can make out that the captain forgot to take in coal at 

 starting. 



So to be in fashion I will tell how the " Senator " rolled and 

 pitched as she sped on through the darkness ; how she 

 would mount the waves as if bent on a trip to the moon; how 

 she would give a roll as if intent on spilling her freight and 

 passengers into the sea, and then how we held our breaths 

 when the prow swiftly came down. I will tell how the 

 timbers groaned, the sails flapped; how the wind whistled 

 through the cordage and the way the captain bawled and the 

 sailors swore, and how the passengers wished they were home. 

 It was my first experience on the ocean and I thought then we 

 had a rough royage, but I suppose there was nothing unusual 

 about it. As to the sea-sickness of the passengers I will say 

 nothing; such descriptions are not agreeable. We were nearly 

 two days making the trip, a time of much discomfort to us in 

 the steerage. We stopped at Santa Barbara and Monterey, but 

 between fog and darkness we saw but little of them. During 

 the prevalence of certain winds they are dangerous places to 

 stop at, and as this was the case now we hurried away from 

 both ports. On the afternoon of Christmas Day we arrived in 

 front of the Golden Gate, whose northern post is Punta Bonita, 

 or Pretty Point ; whose southern is Punta de los Lobos, or 

 Wolves' Point. My impression had been that the entrance 

 was between two acute headlands, beyond which the Bay of 

 San Francisco expanded, which was erroneous. The passage 

 is five or six miles long, with rugged hills as high as two 

 thousand feet on the north, while those on the south are three 

 or four hundred feet in elevation. The channel is from one to 

 two miles wide. The seaward boundaries of this were bare and 

 repulsive, but as we steamed inland the shores and islands 

 were green and pleasant to look upon. Bearing southward we 



