SOCIETY. 409 
Pablo Bay, has a population of about 3,500, and owes its pros- 
perity to the trade of the valleys of Petaluma, Santa Rosa, and 
Russian River, and the plain of Bodega, which communicate 
_through this place with San Francisco. It is on the land mail 
route which connects Mendocino and Humboldt counties with 
the centre of the state. The houses are mostly of frame, and 
none are more than ten years old, the town having been laid 
off in 1851. Petaluma sends more butter and cheese to the 
market than any other town in the state. 
§ 280. San José—San José may have about 3,500 inhabit- 
ants. It is situated in the Santa Clara valley, ten miles south- 
eastward from the bay, and fifty miles, by the stage road, from 
the city of San Francisco. The town was laid out about the 
beginning of the century, and many of the houses are of adobe, 
and were built before the American conquest. The streets 
are lined with shade-trees, and gardens filled with beautiful 
fruit-trees and flowers are abundant. The place is dusty 
during the summer, but otherwise is very pleasant. There 
are eleven hundred acres of orchard in the vicinity of San 
José, more than in any other equally small district in the state. 
One of the boasts of San José is the ‘‘alameda,” which prop- 
erly means “a place of elms,” but is here applied to a road 
three miles long, lined with willow and cottonwood trees. 
The trees stand close together, and are of large size, so that 
they form a dense shade. Unfortunately, the road under them 
is extremely dusty in summer, and muddy in winter. The 
port, of San José is Alviso, seven miles to the north, on the 
banks of the Guadalupe, or Alviso slough. 
§ 281. Santa Clara.—Santa Clara, three miles westward of 
San José, and connected with it by the alameda, has a popula- 
tion of about 2,000. It is a new town, and nearly all the houses 
areof wood. The principal building is the old mission church, 
erected in 1822. It is now used as part of a Jesuit college. 
The mission of Santa Clara was founded in 1777, and a church 
was built on the bank of the Guadalupe Creek, at a place called 
“Socoistika,” the Indian name of the laurel-trees which grew 
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