2 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4tii Se«. 



first practical locomotive to run in America was delivered the 

 previous year ; and the first American locomotive was made in 

 the year 1830. 



Gauged by the tremendous sweep of Science since that 

 period, it is fair to say that Science was then just starting on 

 its real career. It will probably not be disputed that the age of 

 Darwin is a sharp dividing line between ancient and modern 

 science. Present methods of research and generalization are 

 now so commonplace that the older limited, narrow systems 

 seem to belong to the distant dark ages. And yet in the year 

 1830, Charles Darwin was an undergraduate in Cambridge 

 University, which he had entered in prospect of being a 

 clergyman. He was now becoming fascinated with natural 

 science, and his history-making voyage in the "Beagle" was to 

 begin the following year. 



What was to become Hittell's beloved California, was in 

 1830 but an obscure province of Mexico, known as Alta Cali- 

 fornia. Its northern boundary was San Francisco Bay. The 

 Missions were already withering under the threatened blow of 

 Secularization. There were about 30,000 Indians here, who 

 were reduced in a few years to 10,000. The white people were 

 few and almost wholly Spaniards. The mode of life of the 

 Spaniards was, in description, charming. It had an ease, a 

 hospitality, a gaiety unequalled. There was but little industry 

 beyond the raising of cattle, which were killed in immense 

 numbers for their hides which were sold to the occasional sail- 

 ing vessels which came to the Coast. It was not until four 

 years later that Richard H. Dana was to start on that voyage 

 from Boston to California, which called forth Two Years Be- 

 fore the Mast, a book which W. Clark Russell has termed "the 

 greatest sea-book that was ever written in any language.'' John 

 A. Sutter did not come to California until 1839. San Fran- 

 cisco was not. Yerba Buena was the bay "which came up to 

 Montgomery Street" and was very seldom visited by sailing 

 vessels. There was a dilapidated Presidio, and several miles 

 distant was the already waning Dolores Mission. The major 

 portion of California was a vast desert for the greater part of 

 the year. The Sierra Nevada Mountains were but little known, 

 and most of the civilization was on or near the Coast. There 

 was but one Custom House, which was situated at Monterey. 

 The coast was bleak and repelling, though relieved in the spring 



