162 CALIFORNIA. 



in the former direction it is mountainous, in the latter sandy, and in 

 both barren. The entrance to the harbour is striking : bold and 

 rocky shores confine the rush of the tide, which bore us on and 

 through a narrow passage into a large estuary : in this, several islands 

 and rocks lie scattered around : some of the islands are clothed with 

 vegetation to their very tops ; others are barren and covered with 

 guano, having an immense number of sea-fowls hovering over, 

 around, and alighting upon them. The distant shores of the bay 

 extend north and south far beyond the visible horizon, exhibiting one 

 of the most spacious, and at the same time safest ports in the world. 

 To the east rises a lofty inland range, known by the name of La 

 Sierra, brilliant with all the beautiful tints that the atmosphere in 

 this climate produces. 



Yerba Buena is the usual though by no means the best an- 

 chorage. The town, as is stated, is not calculated to produce a 

 favourable impression on a stranger. Its buildings may be counted, 

 and consist of a large frame building, occupied by the agent of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, a store, kept by Mr. Spears, an American, 

 a billiard-room and bar, a poop cabin of a ship, occupied as a 

 dwelling by Captain Hinckley, a blacksmith's shop, and some out- 

 buildings. These, though few in number, are also far between. 

 With these, I must not forget to enumerate an old dilapidated adobe 

 building, which has a conspicuous position on the top of the hill 

 overlooking the anchorage. When to this we add a sterile soil and 

 hills of bare rock, it will be seen that Yerba Buena and the country 

 around it are any thing but beautiful. This description holds good 

 when the tide is high, but at low-water it has for a foreground an 

 extensive mud-flat, which does not add to the beauty of the view. 



Although I was prepared for anarchy and confusion, I was sur- 

 prised when I found a total absence of all government in California, 

 and even its forms and ceremonies thrown aside. 



After passing through the entrance, we were scarcely able to dis- 

 tinguish the Presidio ; and had it not been for its solitary flag-staff, we 

 could not have ascertained its situation. From this staff no flag 

 floated ; the building was deserted, the walls had fallen to decay, the 

 guns were dismounted, and every thing around it lay in quiet. We 

 were not even saluted by the stentorian lungs of some soldier, so cus- 

 tomary in Spanish places, even after all political power as well as 

 military and civil rule has fled. I afterwards learned that the Presidio 

 was still a garrison in name, and that it had not been wholly aban- 



