190 MR. HARTWEG'3 JOURNAL OF A MISSION TO CALIFORNIA. 



Two Wardian cases, which were furnished by the Society for 

 preserving such plants and seeds as will not carry otherwise, 

 gave me some trouble in clearing them at the Customhouse. 

 They were shipped in London for the Sandwich Islands, and 

 thence to Yerba Buena, where they arrived under the Mexican 

 government, without it being exactly known what they contained, 

 nor who the owner was. Some miscreant, thinking he might 

 profit by the occasion, denounced them as containing contraband 

 goods ; they were accordingly taken to the customhouse, where, 

 upon examination, instead of silk stockings and printed calicos, 

 they found "two small greenhouses," some kitchen-garden seeds, 

 nails, &c. Soon after, by the change of government, they fell 

 into the hands of the Americans, and having no papers to show 

 that I was the owner, I had to send in a petition to the captain 

 of the port, prove the property before the magistrate, and after 

 a good deal of running to and fro, I finally received them from 

 the commander of the place, in whose charge they were. 



The vegetation about Yerba Buena is poor ; the sand-hills 

 that surround the town, and which extend for several miles into 

 the interior, are but thinly covered with brushwood of oak 

 (Quercus californica, Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, Rhus, " Toyon," 

 Prunus No. 102, and Baccharis No. 123). 



On September the 10th I went across the bay to Sausalito, in 



company with Don Antonio O and Captain C , who 



were proceeding to their farms on the north side of the bay. 

 Early the following morning we were joined at the mission of 

 San Rafael by General Vallejo. 



After enjoying the hospitable board of General Vallejo for 



three days, I left my companions and proceeded with F , 



an Englishman, to his farm at San Miguel, distant thirty miles, 

 where he is established with two of his countrymen in raising grain 

 and rearing horses and cattle. My new friend had formerly 

 been in the navy, and had seen some service ; he held the rank 

 of a boatswain of an English 74-gun ship. Now, though he 

 is above sixty years of age, he is as vigorous and healthy as a 

 man of forty : being an expert horseman, he occupies his time 

 chiefly in breaking in horses. 



The face of the country about Sonoma and San Miguel is 

 perfectly level towards the bay, and capable of great agricultural 

 improvements. Several species of oak (Quercus, Nos. 139, 140, 

 and 141) thrive well in the fine black vegetable mould, and are 

 disposed into large irregular clumps, giving the country the 

 appearance of an immense park, enlivened by numerous herds of 

 elks and antelopes. 



A ridge of mountains which rises at a short distance from 

 San Miguel is thinly scattered over with oaks, and a few Abies 



