TO SAN FELIPE CITY 263 



been in a serious fix, with less than half a gallon of 

 water left and the horses badly used up. 



Two young fellows, a Norwegian and an Irishman 

 as I fater found, who were watching our coming, 

 first handed us the water-bag as a natural prelim- 

 inary, then made us welcome to San Felipe City. 

 We hastened to water our anxious beasts, then 

 rejoined the populace, and Felipe the dog, at the 

 pump-house. I had heard of this thriving place 

 before, and was pleased to find myself within its 

 boundaries. Over the door of a shed which adjoined 

 the house was a signboard painted — 



SAN FELIPE 



71 FEET BELOW SEA-LEVEL 



WATCH IT GROW 



POPULATION 1920, 1000 



It was a good example of Western optimism — gen- 

 erous, yet modest withal, for what California "city," 

 with two citizens already secured, does not set a 

 higher mark than a single thousand for the end of 

 the decade? 



Here, as in other places I have described, the hope 

 on the settler's horizon is that some person of 

 wealth, providentially going daft, may be inspired 

 to waste his substance in the reckless sinking of 

 wells which shall tap the water-bearing strata that, 

 as the settler is convinced, underlie his precious 

 claim. ^ Our San Felipe friends, though, had an eye 



^ There are uses to which public money is put that seem less states- 

 manlike than employing it in experimental borings in these localities, 

 provided the soil is such as to make agriculture profitable if water 



