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1837.] the observatory; and on the 30th November took our departure for Monterey, where we arrived on the 2nd December. Here I found my old friend, Mr. Jones, (the American consul to the Sandwich Islands,) who had visited the coast on a matrimonial expedition. As he had just purchased the wreck of an American whaler, which had been driven on the beach, a week since, during a heavy gale, we were fortunate enough to obtain from him a very seasonable supply of beef, pork, flour, and biscuits; of course at a pretty high price. The French frigate, La Venus, our old consort at the Sandwich Islands, had quitted but a few days before, and proceeded to San Blas.

No one should calculate on supplies beyond those immediately connected with present consumption, in any port of California. Bullocks, sheep, and vegetables, (particularly potatoes,) with a few fowls and fruit, are all that can be looked for, and these are of moderate price. All these are much inferior in quality, and fruit is particularly scarce since the destruction of the missions. At San Francisco fine fat bullocks, weighing from four to five hundred pounds, hide included, were purchased at five dollars each, sheep two dollars.

I am perfectly satisfied that beef could be as well cured here on the farms, if proper precautions and good materials were used, as in other parts of the world. Individually I have proved it to the extent of one bullock. I think it would keep sound for