7 113 74 
before, opened his arms and exclaimed: “Lord! there is a great 
prairie without a tree.” y 
_ December 12.—We followed the Solidad through a deep fertile 
% valley in the shape of a cross. Here we ascended to the left a a 
) steep hill to the table lands, which, keeping for a few miles, we de- 
_ scended into a waterless valley, leading into False bay at a point 
! distant two or three miles from San Diego. At this place we were 
in yiew 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 
| asand flat, two miles wide, reaching from the head of San Diego — 
bay to False bay. A high promontory of nearly the same width, 
Tuns 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 andthe sloop Portsmouth are at anchor. The hide houses are 
a collection of store houses where the hides of cattle are packed 
_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. # 
Standing on the hill which overlooks the town, and looking to 
the northeast, I saw the mission of San Diego, a fine large building 
now 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 
False bay, where, meeting the waters rolling in from the seaward, _ 
a bar was formed by the deposite of sand, making the entrance of 
False bay impracticable. | : 
‘Well grounded fears are entertained that the immense quantity of 
7 
ay 12 
‘that of San Francisco. In the opinion of some intelligent navy 
However, the commercial metropolis must be at San Francisco, > 
Li 
ie gato: 
} the Gila to the Del Norte, and thence to the Mississippi and the 
Atlantic. ¢” . ahs ens 
| , The rain fell in torrents as we entered the town, and it was my ~ 
| Singular fate here, as in Santa Fé, to be quartered in the calaboose, 
¥ a miserable hut, of one room, some 40 + 30 feet square. A huge 
is ti 
ne ee 
Seo, hi ee 
