The profits upon merchandise about the time we are writing of, may be judged of by one little transaction recorded by Mr. Taylor:—“Many passengers,” he writes, “began speculation at the moment of landing. The most ingenious and successful operation was made by a gentleman of New York, who took out fifteen hundred copies of ‘The Tribune’ and other papers, which he disposed of in two hours, at one dollar a-piece! Hearing of this I bethought me of about a dozen papers which I had used to fill up crevices in packing my valise. There was a newspaper merchant at the corner of the City Hotel, and to him I proposed the sale of them, asking him to name a price. ‘I shall want to make a good profit on the retail price,’ said he, ‘and can’t give more than ten dollars for the lot.’ I was satisfied with the wholesale price, which was a gain of just four thousand per cent.” The prices of food are enormous, and, unhappily, so are the appetites; “for two months after my arrival,” says a respectable authority, “my sensations were like those of a famished wolf;” yet the first glance at the tariff of a San Francisco bill of fare is calculated to turn the keenest European stomach. “Where shall we dine to-day?” asked Mr. Taylor, during his visit. “The restaurants display their signs invitingly on all sides; we have choice of the United States, Tortoni’s, the Alhambra, and many other equally classic resorts, but Delmonico’s, like its distinguished original in New York, has the highest prices and the greatest variety of dishes. We go down Kearney Street to a two-story wooden house on the corner of Jackson. The lower story is a market; the walls are garnished with quarters of beef and mutton; a huge pile of Sandwich Island squashes fills one corner, and several cabbage-heads, valued at two dollars each, show themselves in the window. We enter a little door at the end of the building, ascend a dark, narrow flight of steps and find ourselves in a long, low room, with ceiling and walls of white muslin and a floor covered with oil-cloth. There are about twenty tables disposed in two rows, all of them so well filled that we have some difficulty in finding places. Taking up the written bill of fare, we find such items as the following:— SOUPS. Dol. Cents. Mock Turtle 0 75 St. Julien 1 00 FISH. Boiled Salmon Trout, Anchovy Sauce 1 75 BOILED. Leg of Mutton, Caper Sauce 1 00 Corned Beef, Cabbage 1 00 Ham and Tongues 0 75