BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND CITY. 



379 



the sea, while, betwixt these points, walled in by lofty cliffs on 

 either side, a narrow strait, about a mile in width and five in length, 

 with a depth in mid channel of forty and forty-five fathoms, forms 

 the Chrysopolse or Golden Gate. Beyond this, the wonderful bay 

 of San Francisco opens like an inland sea to the right and left, ex- 

 tending in each direction about thirty-four miles, with a length of 

 more than seventy and a coast of two hundred and seventy-five. 

 The interior view of this lake -like estuary is broken in parts by 

 islands, some of which are mere rocky masses, while others, green 

 with vegetation, protrude from the water for three hundred or four 

 hundred feet. The bay is divided by promontories and straits into 

 three portions. At its northern extremity is Whaler's harbor, 

 which communicates by a strait two miles long with San Pablo bay, 

 a circular basin ten miles in diameter ; at the northern extremity of 

 this a strait of greater length, called Carquinez, connects with Suis- 

 sun bay, which is nearly equal in size and shape to San Pablo, and 

 into this bay the confluent waters of the Sacramento and San Joa- 

 quin are emptied. A delta of twenty-five miles in length, divided 

 into islands by deep channels, connects the Suissun bay with the 

 valley of these rivers, into whose mouths the tide flows regularly. 



On the bay of San Francisco is situated the marvellous city of 

 the same name, which sprang up, almost "in a night," and was 

 constructed of materials quite as frail as those of "the gourd." 

 The town lies about four miles from the narrows or straits by which 

 the bay is entered, on its west side, and on the northern point of 

 the peninsula between the southern portion of the estuary and the 

 Pacific. Its site is in a cove, faced and protected at the distance 

 of two miles by the large island of Yerba Buena. The land rises 

 gradually for more than half a mile from the water's edge, towards 

 the west and south-west, until it terminates in a range of hills five 

 hundred feet above the sea. North of the town is a large bluff, 

 plunging precipitously into the bay, in front of which is the best 

 anchorage. 



The most important rivers of California are, of course, the San 

 Joaquin and Sacramento. The San Joaquin, running from south 

 to north, is represented to be navigable in some seasons for a greater 

 part of its length, during eight months of the year. Its chief afflu- 

 ents, lying altogether on its eastern side, and pouring down from 

 the Sierra Nevada, are the Lake Fork, Acumnes, Tuolumne, Stan- 

 islaus, Calaveras, Mukelumne, Mariposa and Cosumnes. The Rio 

 Colorado of the West forms part of the eastern State boundary, from 

 the 35th degree of north latitude to the Mexican line, but it flows 



