660 THE CHINESE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 
but in the sediments that are now accumulating in these lake- . 
basins will lie many a wreck and skeleton, tree-trunk and 
floated leaf. Near the city sites and old river mouths these 
sediments will be full of relics that will illustrate and ex- 
plain the mingled comedy and tragedy of human life. "These 
relics the geologist of the future will probably gather and 
study and moralize over as we do the records of the Tertiary 
ages. Doubtless he will be taught the same lesson we are, 
that human life is infinitely short, and human achievement ut- 
terly insignificant. Let us hope that this future man, purer 
in morals and clearer in intellect than we, may find as much 
to admire in the records of this first epoch of the reign of 
man, as we do in those of the reign of mammals. 
THE CHINESE IN SAN FRANCISCO. 
BY REV. A. P. PEABODY, D.D. 
Tue Chinese form from a seventh to a fifth part of the 
entire population of San Francisco, and are seen in consid- 
erable numbers in all parts of California. They mingle with 
no other race; they learn or profess to know enough and 
only enough of the English tongue to transact their neces- 
sary boss with their paces: and in San Francisco 
they live almost wholly i in their own crowded quarters, which 
constitute in all respects a city by itself. 
In the street they are the cleanest and neatest of people. 
Every man and boy has his queue of hair, as long as himself, 
nicely wrapped in silk braid, and generally rolled round the 
head. Their principal garment is a dark blue, close-fitting 
frock. Their shoes are of silk or cloth, with felt soles. 
Their houses are dirty beyond description. Scores and 
even hundreds of them are sometimes huddled together in 
the same building, with blankets for their only beds, and 
