Looking east upon a clear day, or with the good field glass which some one of the party has thoughtfully provided, you may see the Pacific Ocean, sometimes the Farallone Islands, San Francisco, the bay, the Golden Gate, Mt. Tamalpais, the Petaluma, Sonoma and Napa Valleys, San Pablo and Suisun Bays, Vallejo, Navy Yard, Benicia, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, with the tortuous windings of their serpentine rivers, creeks and sloughs, Stockton and Sacramento cities, the Marysville Buttes, and the snow-capped Sierras beyond all; while away to the southwest the quiet Santa Clara valley completes the magnificent sweep of the glorious panorama, unrolled for more than a hundred miles around.
If any of the party feel like sermonizing, the text will readily occur to you: "Then the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith unto him: 'All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.'" As for his proposition to "fall down," we have only to remark, "Beloved hearers! don't you do it, for the devil or any other man;" you'd break your necks as sure as you tried it. Better sit down in one of the sheltered nooks in the lee below the summit, eat your lunch and prepare for the descent.
We may easily return to Clayton in time to visit the
Black Diamond Coal Mines,
At Nortonville, six miles distant, over a good road, through a rugged, mountainous and picturesque region. The tunnels enter the northeast side of the mountain, descend nearly three hundred feet southwesterly, whence one level follows a three-foot-thick seam, a good half mile northwesterly. Two main seams are worked at present, one four feet and the other about three feet thick. They dip easterly, or northeasterly. The mine is very neat, and even cleanly, for a coal mine, so that one could wear down an ordinary suit without harmful soiling.
The railroad from the mine to the pier, five miles and a half below, whither iron cars, propelled by gravity, can carry three thousand tons per day, is chiefly remarkable for its unusual grade down the first mile and a half, through which the descent is two hundred and seventy-four feet to the mile. To meet this unusual, but unavoidable necessity, heavy locomotives, of peculiar design and construction, were invented and built at San Francisco. They weigh twenty tons, have three pairs of thirty-six-inch driving wheels, with complex and powerful brakes for the enormous friction necessary.
From these mines one may descend by the railroad already described, to New York Landing, whence the regular Stockton steamer will transport him thither, or return him to San Francisco, the tourist's grand base of supplies, and point of departure for nearly all the more notable excursions about the State and the coast.
12. Sacramento, Stockton, and the Lakes.
To the eleven tours already detailed, one may, or even must, add a twelfth, which is separated from the others, and added, in conclusion, because it consists of cities and places lying on or near the great overland route by which every tourist will be almost certain to enter or leave the State; in most cases, both. These are the capital city, Sacramento; the San Joaquin county seat, Stockton; with Lake Tahoe and Donner lake. One may stop to see these as he comes or goes, or may make them the objects of a special excursion, of which the two lakes, especially Tahoe, are notably worthy.
Sacramento.