quantities; with tens of thousands of acres of waving grain proclaiming with no uncertain sound what the great valleys can produce; whilst over vast areas, from north to south, fruits of all kinds grow and ripen in almost limitless quantities, and great tracts of country merely wait for the capitalist and irrigation to show that almost the whole State may become a vast garden, orchard or farm.

It must be evident to most persons who survey the resources and consider the climate of California, that not only will San Francisco become one of the great cities of the world, but that the State itself is destined to be one of the most coveted portions of the earth's surface-not only for business purposes, but as a health resort for delicate people, and a home for those who wish to settle down in a land which certainly savours very largely of flowers, fruit, and sunshine.

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CHAPTER II.

THE BAY.

It is not, however, about California, its climate and resources, that these pages are written, but about the seamen who man the great sailing-ships which annually go from the shores of Britain and other countries to the North Pacific coast.

The great majority of these ships fly the British flag; but this unfortunately does not signify that they are manned by British sailors, as it is now a well-known fact that British seamen are rapidly becoming a diminishing factor in the manning of these ships, and that foreigners are taking their places.

The following pages will perhaps show that the old rules and customs under which large numbers of sailing-ships have been managed are responsible to a great extent

for the present unsatisfactory state of things, and although all manner of opinions are held upon the subject, yet there can be only one opinion on certainly a number of the questions referred to in this little book.

We know what evil influences meet seamen in almost every port. As it is in other ports so it is in San Francisco. Excellent in every way as a great part of the city is, with noble churches, hospitals and other good institutions, yet as regards the sailors, that part of the city where they land presents to them a pretty solid wedge of temptation.

The long and busy wharves-extending in a somewhat broken line from Meigg's Wharf to the Sugar Refinery, a distance of some four miles-are familiar spots to the eyes of seamen who man the longvoyage sailing-ships which trade to San Francisco; for except a few mail boats and the coasting steamers, few steamers enter the bay, and the long-voyage trade is consequently done by large sailing-vessels.

Not only are the wharves well known, but equally well known is also the very dangerous condition into which certain of them are allowed to get by the wharf

authorities, whilst painfully known to some are the many holes in them, capable of receiving the leg or body of a man who walks unwarily along in the dark, treading as he fondly imagines on good solid wood. Foolish indeed are men who go down these wharves at night the worse for drink. Could the history of what has happened along the city front of San Francisco be written, it would tell of many men who have started on their homeward way never to arrive.

Not only do sailors know the wharves right well, but they know-often to their cost the anything but healthful odours that emanate in certain places from under them; for much of the sewage of the city is discharged not right out into the bay or ocean, but underneath the wharves. Witness Third Street, Clay Street, Brannan Street wharves, where the water is blackened by the filth, and foul air at low tide offends the noses of delicate persons. Can it be a matter for wonder that ships lying for some weeks near sewage discharged in great quantities not uncommonly have cases of typhoid and malaria, and the crews, fresh from sea, too often feel not up to the mark?

If ships along or near certain wharves are obliged to lie in such places, and suffer such odours, it has even been worse for the nasal organs this past year or two for the crews of those ships which have lain at anchor in Mission Bay, which is part of the Bay of San Francisco. The authorities are filling up a large area of depressed land adjoining the bay-presumably to make it possible for the children of men whose smelling organs may not be highly developed to eventually build for themselves houses in which to dwell. The material used for filling up this area, which is now mud and water, and to lay a good foundation for the saloons which will without doubt appear on the surface when it is sufficiently hardened, is the garbage of the city, and daily scores of carts find their way to this historic spot yclept 'The Dumps' and deposit their savoury burden. Probably many thousands of San Francisco people who have been in the habit of going to Potrero and Butcher Town by the car will agree that the odours from this delightful site for villa residences may be fitly described as awful. An electric car is past in a minute, but frequently ships lie at anchor for months in Mission Bay, and then