Oct. 17, 1872] 



NATURE 



497 



bluest imaginable sky, broken by three or four projections 

 of brilliant cloud. Our views toward the north were 

 lovely beyond description ; the sea nearer to us was the 

 deepest blue, toward the shore becoming purple ; then 

 came a long golden beach ; bthind that deep green hills ; 

 behind these a line of purple hills ; still farther back blue 

 mountains, and then over all a series of clouds of varying 

 shades. On the evening of the 9th, off Cape Corrientes, 

 we had a heavy shower, a thing that six weeks in the rainy 

 reason had rendered familiar to us. But the next morn- 

 ing we were in a different climate, cool, dry, and pleasant ; 

 and gliding on smooth seas, we reached the western edge 

 oftheGult of California on the evening of the nth. By 

 noon of the 12th v/e had a strong head-wind which seemed 

 positively co'd after the sweltering heats of Panama and 

 Acapulco. At sunrise on the 13th we anchored in Mag- 

 dalena Bay, v>here we remained thirty hours, seeing oply 

 the two great islands which form the outer defences of 

 this magnificent harbour. We found here a small colony 

 gathering orchilla, a lichen (i'v^a< 7/(7) from which cudbear 

 is made. The plant only grows in comparatively rainless 

 regions, and grows very slowly, so that the gathering of a 

 crop leaves the field barren for many years. The bushes 

 on which this lichen grows are of but few species, and 

 most of them of very odd appearance. The animals in 

 the sea were very interesting, and our thirty hours yielded 

 us a rich harvest. 



Good weather and favourable winds brought us into the 

 harbour of San Diego by noon on Sunday, August 18. We 

 had not been here long before a telegram ordered the 

 Hasslcr to return to the Mexican coast and sound for a 

 rock reported to have been seen in a certain place. The 

 Hasshr obeyed, and was gone several days, searching 

 for a rock which probably does not exist, the scientific 

 party meanwhile remaining in San Diego. It was a 

 delightful place for the naturalists and for us all. It was 

 our own country, and we were at home ; and among 

 hospitable people who at once made us feel at home. A 

 few Chinese (washers and ironers and fishers) seemed to 

 be the only low people in the place, if we except a few 

 Indians in tents in the adjoining fields. All the rest — I 

 speak of the new town — seemed to be industrious, respect- 

 able Americans, Germans, or Spanish. The harbour is a 

 long crescent. The protection is from a long range of 

 hills running southward in a promontory to the west, and 

 two flat islands on the south connected with each other 

 and the continent on the cast by a narrow strip of sea 

 beach. On the north side of this crescent are numerous 

 little villages, two of which. Old San Diego and New San 

 Diego, are of considerable importance. In the new town 

 two daily papers are published, and a steamer leaves 

 five times a month for San Francisco. While we were 

 there the town was intensely excited over the arrival of 

 Col. Scott and other railroad magnates, to make airange- 

 ments for the commencement of work on the western 

 division of the Texas and Pacific Road. The town has 

 been built in faith that a railway communication with the 

 Atlantic must at no distant day be opened with this the 

 best harbour in the southern part of California. But hope 

 deferred had begun to make the heart sick. Those who 

 had not means of living had begun to consider the expedi- 

 ency of retreating to some place of greater activity. But 

 the visit of Col. Scott, and the arrangement made by him 

 with the citizens of the town, have put every one at San 

 Diego into high spiiits, and they look forward now, I 

 think reasonably, to the rapid growth of their city. 



The harbour is excelitnt. It needs some care to prevent 

 the San Diego River from filling it with sand, to prevent 

 t'lc ocean from breaking the beach that connects the island, 

 and thus obviate the present "scour" i'.i the main 

 entrance ; and to prevent wharf and other "improvements" 

 in the distant future from doing the same mischief. The 

 situation of the town is fine, on a gentle slope, with a hard 

 pan foundation for building. The clim'tc is wonderfully 



equable, it is rather too diy, but windmills are cheap ; the 

 direction of the wind is so uniform that the windmill need 

 only be set for west winds ; and with a windmill to irrigate 

 one can raise any crop. Many plants, as olives, figs, 

 grape=:, ijtc., cnly need irrigation for a time and then strike 

 root deep enough to reach perennial moisture. Frost'5 

 come only at intervals of many years and are then exceed- 

 ingly light. We ate tomatoes gathered from bushes that 

 had yielded fruit freely every week in the year for three 

 years past. The melons were of an excellence surpassing 

 anything I have ever tasted. The city is well laid cut, 

 and the nucleus of citizens already there is of sterling 

 quality. The Horton House, which is the principal hotel, 

 is admirably kept in the neatest and most comfortable 

 style, with gas, water, and other conveniences, and a good 

 table. One can make oneself at home there as well as in 

 any city of larger size. I met also many persons in private 

 at whose houses I had evidence that some of the best 

 fruits of English and German, French and Spanish civili- 

 sation are acclimated here. In zoology our naturalists 

 found a rich field. Fifty-three different species of fish, and 

 sixty or seventy species of other animals, were added to 

 their collections, many of these species being of very rare 

 and valuable kinds, and several probably new. Most of 

 these were found in such abundance that the Professor 

 could take just as many as he chose, as many, that is, 

 as he thought he could make useful at home. 



On August 2S we parted with real regret from our new- 

 made but most cordial and hospitable friends at San 

 Diego, and, being again greatly favoured by the weather, 

 we made the Golden Gate on the 3rst at sunrise, and 

 dropped our anchor in the harbour of San Francisco at 

 9 o'clock. The expedition proper here ended, but Prof. 

 Agassiz, with Dr. Stcindachner, will remain to gather 

 what they can in this harbour before returning. Their 

 success during the whole voyage in collecting valuable 

 specimens of fish and other animals has been truly won- 

 deiful ; new and unknown species have apparently been 

 everywhere awaiting their arrival to reveal themselves ; 

 rave and valuable fishes have come freely and in numbers 

 to give themselves up, and the more ordinary species have 

 come into their nets in superabundance, so that we have 

 thrown back living into the sea very frequently more than 

 half cf what the seme brought up. The whole number of 

 fish brought home from the voyage will probably exceed 

 30,000, and the other animals of all descriptions will pro- 

 bably swell the number of specimens brought home to 

 over 100,000. It is, however, the quality and kinds that 

 give value to their collection rather than the mere num- 

 bers ; and the Hassh-f Expedition will have prominent 

 place in the history of zoology, because of the number of 

 new species discovered, as well as for the valuable collec- 

 tion of materials on which original anatomical investiga- 

 tions may hereafter be made. In the history of physics 

 the exhibition will also be remembered, not for the deep- 

 sea dredgings which circumstances beyond the control of 

 the officers of the vessel prevented it from making, but for 

 the valuable geological observations made for the first 

 time in the south temperate zone by an observer thoroughly 

 conversant with the action of glaciers and the glacial 

 sheet north of the equator ; the observer who first detected 

 the marks, now apparent to every eje, which demonstrate 

 the existence of glacial sheets before the birth of the pre- 

 sent glaciers, even in their most extended form. Durirg 

 nine months the little company have received the courteous 

 attention of the officers of the Hasslcr, and enjoyed the 

 rare privileges which the Superintendent of the Coast Sur- 

 vey and Secretary of the Treasury had granted : nine 

 months of continuous and varied enjoyment. The Hassler 

 came round Souih America to survey the Pacific coast cf 

 the United States, but the long voyage has not been idle. 

 It has been employed incidentally in a manner not less 

 valuable than the work to which the vessel is specifically 

 devoted. 



