WE took one day a very pleasant drive out to the Cliff House. Opposite this hotel, which is just on the beach, are some craggy rocks, which are entirely covered with seals and sea-lions. They are so near that you can see them playing in the water, which seems to be alive with them, while their mournful cry echoes in your ears, "yoi hoey, yoi hoey." We took quite a drive on the beach, and saw many little "Portuguese men-of-war," which had been washed up on the sand. They are a sort of stiff jelly fishes, in shape resembling a wafer, with the half of another wafer set up across the center like a sail. We used to see thousands of them floating on the water when at sea. It was quite interesting to watch some little birds, which ran along so swiftly on the sand that they seemed to glide without any movement of their feet. They looked brown, but when they flew, their breasts and the under part of their wings were snowy white; and as their wings vibrated quickly, the sudden alternation of brown and white had a very pretty effect.

At four o'clock on the afternoon of August 5th, we started for Sacramento, on the steamer Yo Semite. The steamer was named for a beautiful valley in California. The first object of interest we passed was Alcatraces Island, with its circle of batteries; but our chief attention was bestowed upon the city left behind us and the shipping,—the larger craft lying at anchor, or changing their position, and the smaller boats flitting here and there in the bay. Passing several islands, we entered San Pablo Bay [St. Paul]. The scenery on either side was interesting, but soon, passing through the Straits of Carquinez, we were in Suisun Bay, and neared the city of Benicia. An arsenal, barracks for soldiers, and the works of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company are located here. While sailing in this bay, we had a good view of Monte Diablo, a high and lonely mountain which seems to be the landmark for all the country round. We passed the San Joaquin River, and soon entered the Sacramento River, a muddy, turbid stream. All the mud from the mines is washed into this river, and pours down into the bay, and from thence to the ocean, coloring the water for a long distance out to sea. We passed by vast quantities of tules or rushes, which cover the surface of the water for miles. Our arrival at Sacramento was about midnight, but we remained on board the boat until morning, and then went to the Vernon House. After breakfast we walked a short distance up the river to a fine bridge about nine hundred feet long.

After lunch we took the cars for Folsom, twenty miles from Sacramento, accompanied by a friend. We passed into the mining district, and at Folsom took a carriage. It was warm and dusty riding, as there is no rain in the summer in that section of California. After an hour's ride, reached Willow Springs, where were the mines we had come to see. This was an hydraulic mine; that is, it is worked by water. We clambered about in the excavation, saw the bed rock, upon which there is a layer of gold-bearing gravel, then one of clay, another of gold-bearing gravel, then of clay again, and one more of gravel. They play with a hose on the gravel, and the water and gravel is washed down through long sluices, the bottom of which is made uneven by blocks of wood placed across. The bits of gold lodge on the uneven surface. In some places they cut down the gravel with pickaxes, and wash it in pans. One man washed out a spadeful of gravel for us, and we brought home a few specks of gold dust. We returned to Sacramento to dine, and after dinner I rode out to the Fair grounds, where the great State agricultural fairs are held. This is the fashionable drive in Sacramento in the afternoon. Here is a fine drive of a mile, outside of which are stalls for cattle. A gentleman told us that in 1849 he sold flour for three hundred dollars a barrel; and bought potatoes for a dollar and a half a pound. That was when California was first known as a gold country, and so many people went thither to seek their fortunes.

The next morning, Mr. M., one of our fellow-passengers from New York to San Francisco took us a delightful drive about the city and suburbs. We saw the levees, which were erected to save the city from another flood.

"What are levees?" asked Willie.

They are heavy banks of earth built along the margin of the stream. The last flood took place in the winter, on December 9, 1861, and January 10, 1862. The whole city was flooded. The water rose over the table in the dining-room of the hotel in which we stayed. Houses could be reached only in boats, and no one knew how soon his dwelling might be undermined and fall. A great deal of the fertile land about Sacramento was ruined by the flood, being covered with a deep layer of gravel.

We saw the new capitol which is in process of erection, and a large, handsome structure it will be. We passed near Sutter's Fort, where it was first discovered that there were gold mines in this country.

In 1853, the city spread over about as much ground as it now does, when it was destroyed by fire. The climate of Sacramento is very different from that of San Francisco, being much warmer. It is so far from the coast that it escapes the chilling wind that visits the latter city at certain seasons of the year.

In the afternoon we went on board the steamer Chrysopolis bound for San Francisco. We went through a slough (or, as the people pronounce it, slew) in the river about seven miles long.

"What is a slough?" asked Alice.

There was a long bend in the river, of fourteen miles, so they cut a sort of canal across it, and half the distance was saved. This canal they call a slough.

Mr. M. told us that in one of the early years of the gold excitement, there was an old man who had watermelons that were in great demand, sometimes selling for five dollars apiece. The next year a great many people wanted the seed to plant; these were sold for sixteen dollars per ounce, but not one came up; so they suppose he boiled the seeds before he sold them! We arrived at San Francisco towards midnight. At noon on Saturday we took the steamboat for Oakland, which is across the bay from San Francisco. It took its name from the number of oak-trees growing there. They give a green and pleasant appearance to the country round. California College is situated in Oakland.

On Sabbath we had the pleasure in the morning of listening to a sermon from an old friend, and in the evening grandpa told the people of what God had wrought through the missionaries in the Sandwich Islands.

Monday morning we were taken a long ride over the country about Oakland. On our way back, we stopped at Mr. B.'s orchard, and had some very nice plums, white and purple. There were nectarines, also, which have the skin of a plum and the stone of a peach; apricots, which have the skin of a peach and stone of a plum; I never knew the difference in those two fruits before. We had some delicious peaches, and brought away a branch of the almond-tree, with the nuts on it, which looked like green peaches. We then took the Oakland boat and were soon at our home in San Francisco. California is noted for its fine fruits, and sometimes we saw baskets of assorted kinds looking like those fine paintings we admire so much.

On Thursday, August 13, we bade our kind and hospitable California friends farewell, and went down to embark on the steamer Golden Age. The kindness of our friends did not end when we left their houses, as beautiful bouquets and baskets of fruit in our staterooms testified. We parted from them with regret, for we had received nothing but kindness from their hands. Farewells were said, and San Francisco soon faded from our sight. We were again on the restless ocean, but we were homeward bound!