Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/122

 96 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA portal which Fremont named the Golden Gate in his report to the Government concerning surveys which he had made since 1844. " It is called Chrysopylae on the map," so we are told, " on the same principle that the harbour of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras (the Golden Horn)." His de- scription of the bay is worthy to be set down, " a bay celebrated from the time of the first discov- erers as one of the finest in the world and justly entitled to that character even under the seaman's view of a mere harbour. But when all the ac- cessory advantages which belong to it fertile and picturesque dependent country, mildness and salubrity of climate, connexion with the great in- terior valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, its vast resources for ship timber, grain and cat- tle when these advantages are taken into the account with its geographical position in line of communication with Asia, it rises into an impor- tance far above that of a mere harbour. . . . Its latitude is that of Lisbon, its climate is that of South Italy; settlements upon it for more than half a century attest its healthiness; bold shores and mountains give it grandeur; the extent and fertility of its dependent country give it great re- sources for agriculture, commerce and popula- tion." Another early reporter describes the bay as " a