

Ex. Doc. No. 41. 113 



beforej opened Iiis arms and exclaimed: ^^ Lord! there is a great 

 prairie without a tree.'' 



December 12. — We followed the Solidad through a deep fertile 

 Talley in the shape of a cross. Here we ascended td the left a 

 steep hill to the table lands, which, keeping for a few\%iilesj we de- 

 scended into a waterless valleyj leading into False bay at a point 

 distant two or three miles from San Diego. At this place we were 

 in view of the fort overlooking the town of San Diego and the bar- 

 ren waste which surrounds it.^ 



The town consists of a few adobe houses, two or three of which 

 only have plank floors. ' It is situated at the foot of a high hill on 

 a sand flat, two miles wide, reaching from the head of San Diego 

 bay to False bay. A high promontory of nearly the same wadth, 

 runs into the sea four or five miles, and is connected by the 

 flat with the main land. The road to the hide houses leads east- 

 "ward of this promontory, and abreast of them the frigate Con- 

 gress and the sloop Portsmouth are at anchor- The hide houses are 

 ^ collection of store houses where the hides of cattle are |)acked 

 before being shipped; this article forming the only trade of the 

 little town. 



The bay is a narrow arm of the sea indenting the land some four 

 or five miles, easily defended, and having twenty feet of water at 

 the lowest tide. The rise is said to be five feet, making the great- 

 est water twenty-five feet, 



Staf dinar on the hill which overlooks the town, and looking to 



st, I saw^ the mission of San Diego, a fine lai%e building 

 ^ow deserted. The Rio San Diego runs under ground in a direct 

 course from the mission to the town, and sweeping around the hill, 

 discharges itself into the bay. Its original debouche^ was into 

 *aise bay, where, meeting t^e waters .Irolling in from the seaward, 

 ^bar was formed by the dep'osite of ^sand, making the entrance of 



ay impracticable. 



"ell PTOlinflfifl f<r.nro o 



a 





quantity of 

 it does not 

 arrested at 



At present 



^stroy the harbor of Saa Diegoj but this evil could be 



slight cost, compared with the objects to be obtaiaed. „ . ^ 



^^an Diego is, all things considered, perhaps one of the best harbors 

 jn the coast from Callao to Puget's Sound, with a single exception, 



fp* of San Francisco. In the opinion of some intelligent navy 

 officers, it is preferable even to this. The harbor of San FrancisQO 

 ^as more water, but that of San Diego has a more uniform climate, 



etter anchorage, and perfect security from winds in any direction. 



owever, the commercial metropolis must be at San Francisco, 



°'*5ng to the -greater extent and superiority of the country adjacent, 



^atered by the rivers Sacramento and San Joachim, unless indeed 



th p^^*^ be made the terminus of a railroad leading by the route of 



ae Gila to the Del Norte, and thence to the Mississippi and the 

 ■^tlantio, - . 



e rain fell in torrents as we entered the town, and it was my 

 Singular fate here, as in Santa Fe, to be quartered in the calaboose, 



^ miserable hut, of one room, some 40 + 30 feet square, A huge 



Th 



8 





