524 GROTTO; DEVIL'S WASH-BOWL AND KITCHEN. [1865.

washed away, compelling us to climb the slippery rocks, and sometimes to trust the seething, uncertain earth.

Soon we were among clouds of steam issuing from the soil at the water's edge, and thence extending far up the bank; the mud everywhere too hot for one to bear his hand in it. We visited the Grotto, where tree-trunks and branches extend across the

cold, and boiling springs are side by side, each with its own individual hue: blue, brown, black, red, green, yellow, pink or gray.

We passed the Devil's Wash-bowl, the Devil's Kitchen and other localities quite as infernal in sound heat and smell as in name. The jets of steam and the bubbling up of hot water are curious enough; but the boiling within hundreds of cavities under ground, dimly seen but clearly heard through their narrow mouths, is far more startling and impressive. The different springs emit many varieties of sound: the singing of a tea-kettle; the pulpy boiling of a huge tank of potatoes; the distant roar of a great quartz-crusher; the cob-cracking of a grist-mill; the sough of the wind; the murmur of the pine; the dash of the waves; all liquid, vibrating, tremulous tones.

The principal group is beside the creek for a quarter of a mile; but there are fully one thousand places where steam issues from the banks. At times the ground shakes so as to rattle crockery in the hotel, one-third of a mile away. The earth trembles and shudders as if in terror of going back to the first throbs of Chaos,

1865.] WITCHES' CALDRON; CRATER; VENT HOLES. 525

of being again without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep.

The Witches' Caldron was seven feet deep, with circular walls two or three yards across; but the lower part of the rocky rim. has broken

ter, but consists entirely of steam. We climbed the bank and crept over brittle, yielding earth as near the mouth as we dared. Its aperture is as large as the body of a man. In the shifting wind, the enveloping, scorching, sulphurous steam is neither pleasant nor safe; but its constant roar and its great column, rising upright for hundreds of feet, are peculiarly impressive.

Recrossing the gorge, we ascended a high plateau, with a broken rim, called the Crater, and really suggesting the mouth of an extinct volcano. Here are the Vent Holes, two springs a

526

THE WONDERS OF CALIFORNIA.

[1865. few feet apart, which will boil an egg in a minute and-a-half; and from which steam escapes with great force. A stone as large as one's fist, dropped into either of them, bounds up three or four feet like an India-rubber ball. I confess a boyish desire to see two steam whistles inserted here, and listen to their shrill, unceasing, maddening screech. I know of no place where so much noise could be had for so little money.

Coming down, we passed one new hot spring which had broken out on the greensward within a few weeks; and saw another of recent birth where the bank was one hundred feet higher than at any of the rest. Even within a few yards of each other they vary greatly in altitude.

Other geysers abound for six miles along Pluton river; but I have named the largest and most interesting. In character their variety is very great; though soda, magnesia, alum, Epsom salts and various salts of iron predominate. They seem great safety valves and vent-holes of the globe; but actually are not volcanic. They are one of Nature's great laboratories, produced by the chemical action of acids in the earth.

When their discoverer first stumbled upon them, his sensations must have been worth experiencing. Indians, who regard them with wildest terror, cannot be induced to approach; and some white visitors never dare to enter the canyon. The smell of brimstone, hissing of steam, seething and throbbing of struggling waters, and the underground roaring and trembling, do seem peculiarly diabolical, and suggest the Inferno very thinly crusted

over.

Travelers declare that these springs far surpass the famed geysers of Iceland. They are certainly one of the rarest features of a section where Nature delights to show the cunning of her hand. Of all the States which the great Pacific railway will open to the annual army of summer travelers the seekers of health, of rest, and of pleasure, from our own and other lands-California will be most sought and enjoyed. No other region of equal area can boast half her natural beauties and wonders. The Yosemite, Sierras, Shasta, Big Trees, Geysers and glorious Lake Tahoe are among the first curiosities of the universe.

1865.]

'STEAMER DAY' IN SAN FRANCISCO.

527

CHAPTER XLIII.

On the morning of December nineteenth I started homeward from San Francisco. Once, almost the entire population rushed to the wharf on the departure of a mail ship. 'Steamer day' is still a great event. Everybody spends the night before in writing letters; and for the last hour one or two thousand persons crowd the decks of the departing vessel. Some go to say 'Good-by,' some from curiosity, and some as a general tribute of remembrance to the old home, by the sea route six thousand miles away.

At eleven o'clock outsiders hasten ashore; the gong sounds; and with hundreds of fluttering handkerchiefs and pantomime kisses to receding faces on the wharf, the great steamer slowly rounds and passes out at the Golden Gate, on her voyage of thirty two hundred miles, from thirty-eight north latitude, to within seven degrees of the equator.

San Francisco harbor is not only one of the most beautiful, but one of the most defensible in the world. A notable feature of the region is seen from the Cliff House, on the shore four miles. from the city. Here are scores of monstrous seals known as sealions, which sometimes weigh two thousand pounds. They disport on rocks near the land, their huge forms leaping and tumbling in awkward exuberance. Their eye bears a strange resemblance to that of a human being, and their barking is somewhat like that of a dog. It is made a penal offense to kill or injure them, as the Californians naturally desire to preserve so rare a curiosity at the very doors of their great city.

The ships of the Pacific Mail Company, running monthly from China and Japan to San Francisco, and tri-monthly from San Francisco to Panama and from Aspinwall to New York, include

528

FINEST VESSELS IN THE WORLD.

[1865 the finest vessels in the world. The largest are three hundred and sixty feet in length, of five thousand tons burden, and have cost about one million dollars each. Elegantly appointed, ably com manded, the perfection of system, they are at the head of our national marine and an honor to American enterprise.

Our steamer, one of the earlier and smaller ones, was the Sacramento, commanded by Captain J. M. Cavarly. She can carry one thousand people. Her upper deck, one-sixteenth of a mile long, affords a splendid promenade.

The great ocean is as calm to-day as when Ferdinand Magellan, after sailing for weeks without meeting a single adverse breeze, named it the Pacific. Vessels here can have more room, and require less strength, than on the stormy Atlantic. The sleeping apartments extend far over the water, upon supporting platforms. On either side the Sacramento has a row of three-berth state-rooms built entirely outside her hull; and still beyond them the guards, wide enough for sitting and promenading.

Her complement of men is about one hundred, all thoroughly drilled for duty. One day the long, shrill fire-blast' was sounded upon the steam whistle. Every man sprang to his post; and in four minutes eighteen streams of water were being thrown by steam. Once every voyage the crew is exercised in this fire-drill. Water-pipes ready for use, permeate all parts of the ship like great arteries; and with the alarm promptly given flames would be instantly extinguished.

The first-cabin passengers always embrace many cultivated, traveled and agreeable persons. Their average is said to be higher than upon any other route in the world. On the first day out, they are assigned places for meals; and nine-tenths are always disappointed at exclusion from the captain's table, the one especially desired. But they soon console themselves by cultivating each other, compelled by affinities and repulsions into groups and coteries. They breakfast at eight, lunch at one and dine at five.

The second-cabin passengers, whose state-rooms are not so good, eat from the same tables but at different hours. The steerage berths are comfortable and very tidy. Their inmates take their meals standing; but have a new bill-of-fare for every day in the week. All the compartments, steerage, cabins, engine rooms,