"How beautiful the waters of the Bay Lie shimmering, gem-embossed and turquoise-blue, Rippling and twinkling! Emerald shores in view Reflected from its surface. This calm day Utters no note of discord. Far away And overhead, the tireless, winged sea-mew Skims languidly the air, sun-warmed anew And freshly blown with each succeeding day.
"O San Francisco Bay! Upon thy shore, What wondrous argosies are anchored here! What giant masts are silhouetted fair 'Gainst the eternal blue which bendeth o'er, As though a Titian hand were carving clear, Majestic monuments in upper air."
The great "Ferry Depot," an ornamental structure with a high tower, is the centre of the San Francisco harbor front, whence the steamboats ply across the spacious bay. From this, the chief business highway, Market Street, stretches far southwest to the Mission Peaks, rising over nine hundred feet and nearly four miles away. Northward, Kearney Street with the leading stores extends past Telegraph Hill, rising almost three hundred feet and giving a magnificent outlook from the summit. Upon Market Street, in Yerba Buena Park, is the magnificent City Hall, completed in 1896 at a cost of over $4,000,000 and containing a library of one hundred thousand volumes. There is a Branch Mint of the United States which coins much of the gold mined on the Pacific Slope. The ancient church of the Mission Dolores, built of adobé is still preserved with the little churchyard. Upon Nob Hill are many of the finest residences, while to the northwestward is the Presidio, originally the Mexican and now the United States Military Reservation, adjoining the Golden Gate for some four miles, and a park of almost three square miles where troops are garrisoned. Here the military band plays in the afternoon and the walks and drives afford beautiful views. The Chinese Quarter of San Francisco, where there is a population of about fifteen thousand, is a characteristic feature, the inhabitants swarming in tall tenements divided by narrow alleys. Its attractions, however, are of a kind usually prepared with a view to induce contributions from visitors.
The Golden Gate Park, a half-mile wide, stretches from the city three miles to the ocean shore, the western extremity being mainly the sand-dunes of the coast, while the eastern portions have been reclaimed, improved and planted with trees. Here are tasteful monuments. The author of the _Star-Spangled Banner_, Francis Scott Key, is commemorated by Story, and the Spanish discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, by Linden, unveiled in 1898. Here also rises Strawberry Hill, an eminence giving an unrivalled outlook. Adjoining the park are the great cemeteries of the city, Laurel Hill and the Lone Mountain, with others, the Presidio being to the northward. To the westward, on the ocean front, is the historic landmark of the coast--Point Lobos, or the "wolves"--having on its elevated surface the Sutro Heights, where the sandhills have been converted into a fine estate and garden, and out in the sea, a cable's length from shore, are the celebrated Seal Rocks, which are nearly always covered with seals basking in the sun. Some are very large, and their movements are quite interesting, their curious barking being distinctly heard above the roar of the surf. To the northward of Point Lobos is the ocean entrance to the Golden Gate. The portals are a mile apart, and seen from the sea its guardian heights rise two thousand feet on the left hand, stretching up to the peak of Tamalpais to the northward. On the right hand the heights are lower, but still lofty. The slopes are bare and sandy, and between them within the strait can be distinctly seen the island fortress of Alcatraz, guarded on the one hand by Goat Island and on the other by the high green slopes of Angel Island. Up on the Presidio proudly floats high above the shore the American flag standing out in the breeze. Behind it is the great city. This Golden Gate seen from within, looking westward, is a narrow pass, giving a vista view of the broad Pacific, its waves rolling towards us thousands of miles from the distant shores of China and Japan.