THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

APRIL, 1858.

No. CCXVIII.

ART. I. 1. The Annals of San Francisco.

By FRANK SOULÉ, JOHN H. GIHON, M.D., and JAMES NISBET. 8vo. New York: 1854.

2. California Indoors and Out; or, How we Farm, Mine, and Live generally in the Golden State. By ELIZA W. FARNHAM. 8vo. New York: 1856.

3. California and its Resources. By ERNEST SEYD. 8vo. London: 1858.

JUST

UST ten years ago we laid before the readers of this Review an outline of the progress of settlement in North America, together with some general conjectures as to its future prospects, in an article on the commercial statistics of the late Mr. Macgregor. It is not without interest to ourselves, in which we hope we may find some to share, that we have recently looked back at this memorial of the thoughts and calculations of a period which already seems separated from us by a large tract of history. The Irish famine was just over. The mighty exodus' which followed it had just commenced; and though no diviner of that day could prognosticate its dimensions or its results, yet the signs of that great event were already forcing themselves on the observation of the world. That the westward march of the nations was receiving a new and extraordinary impulse, we could perceive more than this, much greater sagacity than ours was unable as yet to conjecture. It creates something of a solemn feeling, when we endeavour to annihilate in imagination, for a moment, those ten years—to replace ourselves at the point we occupied in 1847, peering, as well as we might, into the dark forward and abysm of time.' Given the

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continuance of certain conditions, experience may forecast the future; but who can foresee the continuance of those conditions? Men studied the social and economical results of the cultivation of the potato and the vine, as if these were to proceed in their old course of development to the end of time; the mysterious blights of these vegetables came on us, like the canker and the palmer worm of old, my great army, which I will 'send among you:' and the populations depending on these farspreading branches of industry have been starved, or uprooted from their homes, or changed in their habits, and our estimates and prognostics have passed away as dreams. We built our political economy on the presumed annual returns of gold and silver, as if the elements of calculation were all but established quantities all at once, and simultaneously, in two distant quarters of the globe, discoveries were made which have changed the entire aspect of monetary affairs, and reduced the volumes of metallic lore, produced before 1847, into as mere obsoleteness as speculations on the metal plates of the Jewish Temple, or the golden bricks of King Croesus of Lydia. And thus the world advances : its ordinary cycles of progress and retreat interrupted ever and anon by strange, comet-like phenomena, which seem to have their origin far away in another order of things, and yet are, doubtless, not less reducible to general principles than the recurring events of ordinary life, and not less regularly interposed, as secondary causes, between us and that remote but infinite Will which governs all.

A few words will suffice to place succinctly before the reader the general results of the last ten years the most important decennium, by far, in the history of colonisation. Within that period the population of Canada has increased a third: that of the Australian colonies from three or four hundred thousand to

nearly a million. The province of Victoria alone, scarcely existing in 1847, has now three millions of annual revenue: a future Great Britain has been founded and organised in New Zealand: three new States, and seven or eight Territories, have been added to the North American Union, by occupation or by conquest from Mexico; California, with which we are now about to concern ourselves, being by far the most important of these gains. The commercial world has acquired three great emporia; two on the shores of the Pacific, of which the names are already as familiar in our ears as those of Hamburg or Amsterdam: one on the great American lakes, which, though less spoken of among ourselves, is perhaps the most remarkable creation of the three: San Francisco, Melbourne, Chicago. In the 1849 edition of Mr. McCulloch's carefully compiled

Dictionary of Geography, not one of the three is even named. And, lastly, to conclude our recapitulation of the exploits of this decennium with some notice of the preparation it has made for the future extension of similar exploits the capital it has created for future use,- we must point out that it has constructed a railway across the Isthmus of Panama, all but completed one across the Isthmus of Suez, established steam communication across all the oceanic highways of the globe, except the Pacific, and covered the European continent and its seas with the network of the electric telegraph.

These are indeed stupendous achievements to be accomplished in one seventh of the ordinary life of man. And it is hardly probable that they will be repeated on an equal scale; not unless similar phenomena, beyond the control of ordinary human actions and agencies, should recur, the simultaneous destruction of the food of a nation, with the discovery of extensive natural magazines of gold on two different points of the earth's surface. Emigration, from these islands at least, has already considerably fallen off, and seems likely, for the present, to continue to decline. Enough, however, of the colonising impulse still remains to render the future bright with promise; and there is probably no portion of the earth's surface, as yet all but unoccupied, which offers so vast a field for the future extension of Christendom (we use the old-fashioned word as including the religion, race, and civilisation of a Christian people), as North-western America, from the Mexican frontier to or beyond the Russian boundary.

We said on the former occasion to which we now refer, that there appeared then little probability that this region, so inviting to white immigration, could receive any great amount of it by overland travel from the Atlantic States. The distance appeared too enormous the hardships to be undergone too severe - for more than the transit of occasional recruits from the boldest class of pioneers. And notwithstanding the new element introduced into the calculation by the all-disturbing discovery of gold, and the epidemic rage for its acquisition which signalised the mad years 1849-1851, the event has certainly supported this view. As far as we can collect the facts, not above onesixth of the white inhabitants of California have penetrated thither by the overland route; but the bones of many thousands who have perished in the attempt, are bleaching on the desolate prairies, or in the Canyons' of the Rocky Mountains. strange establishment of the Mormon Republic, half-way between the frontier of Kansas and that of California, might have tended greatly to facilitate the communication; but, under the circum

The

stances, has probably rather impeded it.

The mass of immi

gration has reached San Francisco by sea in the first years of the gold discovery; chiefly by the magnificent fleet of 'clippers' which American enterprise soon made to circulate round Cape Horn.

The clipper ship,' say the Annalists of California, 'is virtually the creation of San Francisco. The necessity of bearing merchandise as speedily as possible to so distant a market,—one too which was so liable to be overstocked by goods,-early forced merchants and ship-builders interested in the Californian trade to invent new and superior models of vessels. Hence the modern clipper with her great length, sharp lines of entrance and clearance, and flat bottom. These magnificent vessels now perform the longest regular voyage known in commerce, running along both coasts of the Americas in about four months.'

But since the construction of the railway across the Isthmus of Panama, the passenger traffic to California principally takes that course. In truth, the impracticable region which occupies the centre of North America is scarcely less than a thousand miles in average width-a barrier of several mountain ranges, alternating with sandy or rocky plains, almost without perennial rivers, and subject to a climate of extreme winter rigour. The American State of California-a country about as large as France—has an extremely simple topography. It occupies, in the first place, a long valley, bounded east by the Sierra Nevada, west by a maritime range of little elevation, and communicating with the ice through the single outlet of the harbour of San Francisco, picturesquely termed the Golden Gate' by its modern inhabitants; and secondly, the slope of the maritime Sierra to the sea.

The region comprised within these limits appears undoubtedly, all exaggeration apart, to be one of the most desirable and lovely portions of the earth. It affords every variety of surface, from the snowy range to the wide-spread pastoral valley, only in extensive plain country it is rather deficient. Its climate, for purposes of human life and enjoyment, is nearly the finest known. It has a temperature answering to that of Italy; but with drier and serener skies, and an infinitely purer air. It occupies exactly the happy interval between the aridity of Mexico and the dripping climate of North-western America.

'The year,' says Mr. Seyd, is divided into the dry and rainy seasons. The dry season includes the greatest part of the spring, all the summer, and a great part of the fall. During this time there is constant sunshine. Heavy dews fall in spring and autumn, whilst the summer nights, at least in high summer, are more or less dry. Near the coast the heat is moderate, owing to the breezes which blow during the hottest part of the day, and the temperature is rarely so

high as that of an English summer. In some of the counties - far in the interior however the heat is much greater in proportion to their latitude, on account of the absence of these cooling sea-breezes.

'In the middle of the day the heat in the interior is sometimes great, but it has nothing of that depressing, suffocating character which we observe during a hot summer day in England. The atmosphere retains its clearness and invigorating influence.

But however warm

a day may have been, towards evening the air becomes fresher and cooler; and whilst the temperature remains very mild and agreeable, it is just cool enough to make you enjoy a light blanket; and this pleasant freshness contrasts strongly with the sweltering and suffocating nights in some parts of Europe or the tropics. The rainy season generally commences in the latter part of November, and lasts till about April. But it must not be supposed that by rainy season we mean perpetual rain; it may rain sometimes for a week or fortnight together with occasional cessations during the day, but then again there are intervals of fine sunny weather, lasting also a week or a fortnight, and these are perhaps without exception the most agreeable periods of the year, so mild, so freshly green, so comfortably warm, and such a relief after a long spell of rain. In fact, the rainy season in California resembles nothing so much as a rather rainy summer in England. The temperature very rarely falls below zero, and ice has made its appearance but a few times; snow is very seldom seen except in the mountainous regions towards the Rocky Mountains, where it falls copiously, and supplies the streams with water during the summer.

'A curious feature in the climate of California is the almost total absence of thunderstorms. In the south of the state they are said to occur sometimes, but farther north they are unknown, and the rolling of the artillery of heaven has never been felt in San Francisco. Slight shocks of earthquake are felt occasionally, as all along the Pacific shores, originating, no doubt, from the volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands, some thousand miles from us; but these vibrations are very slight, and never create alarm or do the least damage.

'From the above description the reader will perceive that the climate is a very moderate one, requiring scarcely ever very light or very heavy clothing, and one might almost wear one suit of moderately thick texture, say black cloth, from year's end to year's end.'

The air of California is fresh and invigorating, having a most beneficial effect upon the blood and lungs. But its crystal clearness is most extraordinary. Looking from an elevation upon a widely extended landscape, you are surprised at the distinctness of every object the outlines of the thirty to fifty miles distant mountains are as sharply defined as by the finest cutting instrument, so that they appear much nearer than they really are, and every shade of colour is distinctly visible. Standing on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, you have a most splendid view of the city itself, and of the large bay, with Oaklands some nine miles distant on the opposite shore, and although the large vessels in the harbour appear but small boats, you