JOO 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
porpoise and seal, and bellow and die on the shore of San 
Carmelo. 
The mission buildings are situated on the north side of the 
valley near the sea. They stand on elevated ground, which 
overlooks the bay and seven or eight miles of the vale. 
They were inhabited by a family of half-breeds, who kept 
the keys of the church. The edifices are built around a 
square area of half an acre. On the west, south, and east 
sides of it, are the Indian houses with their ruined walls, scal¬ 
loped tile roofs, clay floors and open unglazed windows. On 
the north side are the church, the cells and dining hall of the 
Padres. The latter is about forty feet by twenty, lighted by 
open spaces in the outer wall, grated with handsomely turned 
wooden bars, and guarded by plank shutters, swinging inside. 
At the west end of this room is a small opening through 
which the food w T as passed from the kitchen. On the north 
side and east end are four doors opening into the cells of 
the friars. Everything appeared forsaken and undesirable. 
And yet I could not forbear a degree of veneration for those 
ancient closets of devotion ; those resting-places of the way¬ 
farer from the desert; those temples of hospitality and prayer, 
erected by that band of excellent and daring men, who 
founded the Californian missions, and engraved on the heart of 
that remote wilderness, the features of civilisation and the 
name of God. 
There was an outside stairway to the tower of the church. 
We ascended it and beheld the broken hills, the vales and the 
* 
great heaving sea, with its monsters diving and blowing; 
and heard it sounding loudly far and near. We saw the 
ruined mission of San Carmelo, and the forsaken Indians 
strolling over its grounds! On the timbers over head, hung 
six bells of different sizes—three of them cracked and tone¬ 
less. Formerly one of these rang to meals, to work, and 
rest ; and the others to the various services of the Catholic 
faith. Dr. Bale informed us, such was the regularity of these 
establishments that the laboring animals stopped in the road or 
