After a favorable voyage on the Pacific, we arrived safely in San Francisco. San Francisco is proverbial for its fine commodious restaurants. When in that city, I partook of refreshments in one which has the reputation of seating at once one thousand people. A miniature indoor railway was so constructed as to carry, in carriages, dishes of food and empty dishes, forward and back, all around this immense hall. The noise and clatter produced by this operation is not particularly soothing and musical to a delicate and refined ear, and more especially not very much so to a highly sensitive nervous organization. I had, in a few instances in my life, experienced the sensation produced by slight earthquakes, but not of those of any considerable magnitude. One day in San Francisco, while sitting at the table, enjoying the good things provided in one of these magnificent halls of entertainment, all of a sudden a very singular sensation came over me, for which I could not decipher the cause. At the same moment I imagined a heaving or rocking motion of the floor, as if the foundation was giving way. Immediately the people arose from the tables and rushed to the door. Not comprehending the cause of the sudden excitement and confusion, I arose to follow the excited multitude, still ignorant of what was up, and, of course, anxious to learn. Approaching the gentleman who stood still in his usual place to receive pay from his customers, I thought he appeared to be vexed. Passing him my change, I begged him to explain to me the cause of the abrupt evacuation. "An earthquake!" he ejaculated. And as I was the only customer remaining, I attributed his vexation to the fact that the multitude rushed out minus paying their bills. But the earthquake proved to be of destructive magnitude--sufficiently so to satisfy my curiosity. Much injury was done, not only to the restaurant so suddenly vacated, but to many other buildings. The president of the Western Telegraph Company procured for Elder Benson and myself, and for our baggage, a free pass through to Salt Lake City; for which unsolicited favor we felt very grateful.