THE PENINSULA. 7
George Hyde and a sapient council. The population is chiefly composed of enterprising Americans, sturdy pioneers, with a due admixture of backwoodsmen and seafarers, numerous artisans, and a sprinkling of traders and professional men — all stanch townsmen, figuring for beach lots at prices ranging as high as $600, and for local offices. There are rival districts struggling for supremacy, and two zealous weekly newspapers.
Less imposing are the immediate surroundings; for the town spreads out in a straggling crescent along the slope of the Clay-street hill, bordered by the converging inclines of Broadway and California streets on the north and south respectively. A thin coating of grass and melancholy shrubs covers the sandy surface between and around, with here and there patches of dwarfed oaks, old and decrepit, bend- ing before the sweeping west wind. The monotony incident to Spanisli and Mexican towns, however, with their low and bare adobe houses and sluggish population, is here relieved by the large proportion of compact wooden buildings in northern European style,^ and the greater activity of the dwellers. The beach, hollowed by the shallow Yerba Buena Cove, on which fronts the present Montgomery street, presents quite an animated scene for these sleepy shores, with its bales of merchandise strewn about, and piled-up boxes and barrels, its bustling or lounging frequenters, and its three projecting wharves;^ while a short distance off lie scattered a few craft, including one or two ocean-going vessels. Farther away, fringed by the fading hills of Contra Costa, rises the isle of Yerba Buena, for which some wild goats shortly provide the new name of Goat Island. On its eastern side is a half-ruined rancheria, still braving the encroachments of time and culture.
'There were 160 frame buildings and only 35 adobe houBes, although the latter were mora oonspicaoos by their length and brightneas. 'At Cklifomia, Clay, and Broadway streets.
