sides the glorious waters are spread out to the view, bounded by shores beautifully diversified with bold headlands, verdant promontories, and shaded islets, where the streamlets stealing down from the sloping hills commingle with the blue waters of the Pacific, while towering above are lofty mountain ranges, amongst which the half shadowy crest of Mount Diavola stands in towering pre-eminence, forming a striking background, holding the bay and its contiguous shores in their embrace, like a large inland lake; the broad expanse of its rippling bosom picturesquely relieved by the sight of many a sail-spread craft, with here and there a steamer, and the naked rigging of the anchorage ground.

San Francisco itself is all life and animation, full of revelry and delight; the very streets and wharves seem to groan beneath the weight, and the hotels and saloons swarm with the daring adventurers destined for the El Dorado, hardy sons of toil and enterprise, ready to penetrate even to the North Pole, in their eager, fevered pursuit of gold. Down the Sacramento pours night after night a torrent of future British

Columbians. It is useless to attempt to stem the tide in the rush, the words of advice and the voice of reason are equally unheeded. The fever rages with a virulence that defies description, and those who have become infected with it will hear nothing, listen to nothing, think of nothing, dream of nothing but Frazer River and its golden sands. Even newspaper men, the last and least credulous in the world, are making off, - all seem determined upon exploring for themselves. They cannot be stopped even for a moment in their excited career; and although those who are now there, from whom letters have been received, advise intending emigrants not to start for a month till the river falls, yet every steamer, clipper ship, or barque, which sets sail for the north, is filled with passengers, and hundreds have to be left behind for want of accommodation-room for them. For the rest to my narrative.

CHAPTER XVII.

I EMBARK FOR VANCOUVER, AND SUBSEQUENTLY MAKE USE OF MY GEOLOGICAL SHOVEL.

It was a bright and beaming morning in early June on which I embarked on board the steamer Cortes for Victoria, Vancouver's Island; all things to me wore a riant and festive aspect, for my spirit was elate with hope and buoyed up with the pleasures of anticipation; to my eyes all was gold and glitter, and all that glittered gold. Ardent and impetuous, with a daring love of enterprise, danger, and excitement, I felt ready to plunge wherever the hand of fate or fortune beckoned, and, being reckless of consequences, wherever destiny determined.

I stood upon the deck of that vessel as she slowly moved from her place at San Francisco

wharf, one of nearly fifteen hundred passengers, and I blended up my voice with the farewell of that mighty crowd in a hearty, hopeful cheer to those collected on shore, although I had no friend there to respond. I was alone—I had been alone in life before-but I make friends. with all mankind, and I never expect to find one more true to me than another till I am smiled upon in Holy, my friend Parson Baggs will fill up the blank, by her whose love and every pleasure may be mine.

The cheers of those on shore died faintly away in the distance, as the paddle-wheels flew round; the waving of hats ceased, and the broad bay, with its bounding and picturesque coast-lands, lay out before our view. The bright glare of the sun lent a golden tinge to the rippling waters, and all nature seemed clad in her most brilliant array. The majority of those on board were, like myself, alone in California, and had forsaken the city we were so fastly receding from, without compunction or regret, without a shade of sorrow at parting from any beloved object, or a qualm of conscience for the past; but some there were whose anxious, lingering looks proclaimed the inner working

of the heart, and as the wharf became entirely hidden from the view, seemed to utter within themselves a benediction on those whom they had left behind-wives and children dear to them for the gold-digger is a man of deep and generous feelings; his avocations foster affection and endear the remembrance of home, and as he rocks away at his cradle-rocker, and gathers the glittering treasure presented to his eye, he thinks of those to whom he is endeared, and contemplates it more for the sake of the good it will be productive of to those whom he loves, than he does for the mere sake of gratifying his taste for gain. Away sped the ship, her sails pouting in the gentle breeze; soon we cleared the strait, and the ocean, calm and expansive, lay spread out before us, with here and there a sail coursing along the horizon, not "small by degrees and beautifully less," but

Slowly expanding as we nearer drew,

'Neath and above the ever-rolling blue.

There were several companies on board, numbering from three to six men each. Some of these had brought whaleboats with them, in which they intended making the voyage up-river from