CHAPTER XXX. 



SAN FRANCISCO AND END OF JOURNEY. 



AN FRANCISCO, the chief city on the 

 AVestern Coast of North Auierica, is in 

 every respect a wonderful city, not least 

 so in its origin and development. Not 

 very long ago — less than a century — 

 the Pacific Coast was almost an un- 

 explored region. The great State of 

 California — next to Texas, the largest in 

 the Union — now teems with populous 

 cities and new settlements, and produces meat and 

 grain abundantly sufficient for the supply of a large 

 portion of the country. It has a coast line on the 

 Pacific Ocean of seven hundred miles and, extending 

 from the coast, a breadth of three hundred and thirty 

 miles. California has also the most wonderful gold 

 fields of the world. They were discovered in the 

 middle of the last century by the Jesuits, who kept the 

 knowledge a secret. 



In 1848, as previously stated, Captain Sutter found 

 gold on the land of one of his farms, and the news of 

 the discovery at once spread. The excitement ex- 

 tended throughout the Union and the "Argonauts of 

 '49 " came swarming to the gold fields. People ran 

 about picking up the precious lumps as " hogs in a 



(529> 



