Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/35



in warm  yellowish-green  surges  round  Tamalpais, deepening into  purple  as  they  rise  in  graceful  alpine outline and  mingle  with  the  clouds. Opposite this bank the  waters  of  the  bay  and  ocean  are  separated by a  ridge  of  argillaceous  sandstone,  severed  at  the Golden Gate  so  as  to  form  a  peninsula  some  six  miles at the  northern  end,  and  broadening  into  open  high- lands toward the  south. Upon these  so  lately  sand- blown hills,  freckled  with  tough,  wind-defying shrubbery, beneath  whose  branches  quail  and  rabbits loved to  hide,  and  birds  and  rivulets  sana*  too-ether,  is now  being  planted  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the Farthest West;  while  all  around  this  favored  bay, blustering in  its  strength  and  radiant  in  its  beauty, and already  white  with  the  sails  of  every  ocean,  in- dustries are springing  up,  towns  and  cities  are  being built, and  a  race  of  men  and  women  developing  which some clay  will  make  the  nations  marvel. The bay  of Kieselarke  has  been  called  golden  because  of  its  shin- ing sands; but  far  more  proper  may  our  beautiful sheet which  from  the  first  so  gladdened  the  hearts  of the  followers  of  St  Francis  rejoice  in  that  name,  for not only  are  its  shores  golden,  but  its  hills  and  skies, its commerce  and  its  industries,  its  towns  and  people are orolden.

o

Fair California ! clad in  verdant  spring  vesture  or resting  in  arid  robes  under  a  metallic  sky ;  voluptuous in thy  half-tropic  bed,  in  thy  sunlit  valley  warmed with the  glow  of  bronze  and  rosy  lustre,  redolent  with wild flowers,  and  billowy  with  undulating  parks  and smooth corruoated  mounds  and  sWellinof  heio-hts,  with wavmg grass  and  fragrance-breathing  forests,  capti- vating the mhid,  and  ravishing  the  senses  with  thy bewitching charms,  and  smiling  plenty  in  alternate seasons of  refreshing  rains  and  restful  dryness;  with thy lofty  snow-capped  peaks,  and  metal-veined  Sierra, and amethystine  smooth-browed  hills  bathed  hi  purple mists and  musical  with  leaping  streamlets  and  so