From the name of an insignificant little stream, Alameda has come to be the designation of one of the most important counties in the state, and of the flourishing city on the east side of San Francisco Bay, nine miles east-southeast of San Francisco. This city was once known as Encinal (place of oaks), on account of the groves of beautiful live-oaks there, nearly all of which have, most unfortunately, been sacrificed to so-called “improvements.” Yet, some fine specimens still remain in the county, perhaps the best being those on the campus of the University of California, at Berkeley, Alameda County. The encino (live-oak), is thus described by Professor Jepsen: “It is a low, broad-headed tree, commonly twenty to forty feet, but sometimes seventy feet high. The trunk is from one to four feet in diameter, usually short, and parting into wide-spread limbs, which often touch or trail along the ground.” This tree has little commercial value, but is highly regarded for its hardy nature, which permits it to flourish in exposed localities along the coast, where no other tree thrives, and for the perennial green with which it adorns an otherwise often bleak landscape.—(Notes taken from The Trees of California, by Professor Willis Linn Jepsen, of the University of California.)
LOS FARALLONES
Los Farallones, the three small islands standing like watch-dogs at our outer gate, about thirty-two miles due west of the entrance to the bay, derive their name from farallon, a word meaning “a small pointed island in the sea.” Although this word is commonly employed by the Spanish to designate such islands, and its use in this case is perfectly obvious, the statement has been made that our isles were named for a certain Ferolla, one of the early navigators, a theory entirely without value.
The Farallones are frequented by multitudes of sea-fowl, which breed there and at one time supplied great quantities of eggs for the San Francisco market. For some twenty years or more the United States Government, owing to the contentions of rival egg companies, has prohibited the gathering and sale of these eggs.
MOUNT TAMALPAIS
“To see the sun set over Tamalpais,
Whose tented peak, suffused with rosy mist,
Blended the colors of the sea and sky
And made the mountain one great amethyst