Thence back to San José, and, after a good night's rest, set forth on tour
V. Gilroy, and Points South,
and the places for which it is the starting point.
This brisk and lively, neat and thriving town, we beg its pardon, city, is thirty-one miles southeast of San José, from which one reaches it by the Southern Pacific Railroad for a fare of $2.00. This city is the present terminus of the railroad, and the consequent centre from which radiate the various stage routes to the "lower country." On every hand it presents evidences of business prosperity and rapid growth. Population, over two thousand.
Hot Spring—Fourteen miles northeast of Gilroy, in a small, rocky ravine opening into Coyote Cañon, is this noted spring. Its water contains iron, soda, magnesia, sulphur, and baryta, and has a pungent but not unpleasant taste. Throughout the year it preserves a uniform temperature of about one hundred and ten degrees. Within a rod of the hot spring are a dozen or more large springs of pure, cold water. The curative properties of the water, added to the romantic character of the surrounding scenery, have caused the erection of a fine hotel, reached by regular stages, over a good road, from Gilroy.
Some twelve miles southwest of Gilroy, one may find, in the
Pajaro Valley,
as quiet and beautiful an agricultural nook as the State affords. For a quiet retreat in some hospitable farmhouse, with a good chance for small game, for a day or two, this snug valley will decidedly "fill the bill." Its black soil, famous potatoes, and charming little branch cañons will dispose a farmer, or a hunter, or a painter to stay as long as possible. When you have rusticated as long as you can in the romantic vicinity of Gilroy, and are ready, though unwilling, to go, you can return by the way you came, if you like; but, if time permits, and you wish to see one of the pleasantest sections of the State, you will take stage through Hollister and
San Juan,
A quiet little town, old and quaint, and chiefly notable for its early mission, founded in 1797, to