MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



and are thoroughly demoralized. At Reno, where we supped, 

 the country began to get less arid, and there were some good 

 farms in the valleys. We passed over the pass of the Sierra 

 Nevada at night, and before sunrise were in the foothills of 

 California, bare, except for a few second-growth pines ; then 

 farms, orchard, and vineyards, with eucalyptus trees planted 

 round the houses ; then a low, flat country to Oakland, where 

 huge ferry-boats cross the bay to San Francisco. 



Here my brother John, whom I had not seen since I left 

 for the Amazon in 1848, met me, and we went on to the 

 Baldwin Hotel in San Francisco, where he had taken rooms 

 for us, and had made arrangements for me to give two lectures 

 on Wednesday and Friday. In the afternoon we had many 

 callers, including Professor Holden of the Lick Observatory, 

 Dr. Leconte, Mr. Davidson of the Geological Survey, and 

 many others, as well as one or two interviewers. Dr. Holden 

 kindly invited us to dinner on Thursday, where we met Pro- 

 fessor Hilgard and Mr. Sutro. The latter gentleman invited 

 us to breakfast with him at his beautiful cottage on the cliff, 

 looking over the Pacific and the seal rocks, and surrounded by 

 beautiful gardens. Mr. Sutro was a wealthy merchant and one 

 of the magnates of San Francisco ; he gave us one of the most 

 luxurious and pleasant breakfasts I ever enjoyed, beginning 

 with cups of very hot, clear soup, followed by fish, cutlets, 

 game, etc., with various delicate wines, tea and cofTee, hot 

 cakes of various kinds, and choice fruits. He entertained us 

 also with interesting conversation, being a man of extensive 

 knowledge and culture. My two lectures on " Darwinism " 

 and " Colour" were fairly attended. 



On Saturday Dr. Gibbons of Alameda, on the Bay of 

 San Francisco, took me for a drive into the foothills to see the 

 remains of the Redwood forest that once covered them, but 

 which had all been ruthlessly destroyed to supply timber for 

 the city and towns around. Our companion was Mr. John 

 Muir, whose beautiful volume, " The Mountains of Cali- 

 fornia," is, in its way, as fine a piece of work as Mr. Hudson's 

 " Naturalist in La Plata." On our way we passed a dry hilly 

 field, brilliant with hundreds of the lovely Calochortus liiteuSy 



