[1] THE GOLDEN GATE. "Approaching from the sea, the coast presents a bold outline. On the south the bordering mountains come down in a narrow ridge of broken hills, terminating in a precipitous point, against which the sea breaks heavily. On the northern side, the mountain presents a bold promontory, rising in a few miles to a height of two or three thousand feet. Between these points is the strait—about one mile broad in its narrowest part, and five miles long from the sea to the bay. To this gate I gave the name of _Chrysopylae_, or Golden Gate, for the same reason that the harbor of Byzantium was called _Chrysoceras_, or Golden Horn."—_Fremont._ This was prior to the gold discovery. The old Presidio was at the end of the southerly point. [2] ONE VAST GOLD-FIELD. Most of the tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin were soon tapped, and search was even made among the sources of these rivers in the belief that gold existed there in virgin masses, from which the particles found lower down had been worn by water. Eager prospectors soon carried exploration from the Trinity in the north, to King's River in the south. [3] INDIANS OF THE RANCHERIAS were employed in large numbers by the whites to wash gold for them. With willow baskets fifty Indians washed out in one week fourteen pounds (avoirdupois) of gold. [4] IN EVERT PORT. "A resident of New York coming back after an absence of three months (this was in January) would be puzzled at seeing the word 'California' everywhere staring him in the face, and at the columns of vessels advertised to sail for San Francisco."—_New York Tribune._ THE CALIFORNIA PIONEERS. Although we have seen much doing there in the previous year, and the earliest comers were the true pioneers, the great rush to the gold region took place in 1849, upon the first news being spread throughout the States. It is therefore from that year that the history of the gold fever is usually dated. So great was the demand for shipping, that even old whale-ships were fitted up to carry three or four hundred passengers round Cape Horn. Even these were quickly crowded with emigrants. But ere long the demand for vessels that would show greater speed gave rise to new models in ship-building; and to this cause we owe the fast clipper ships which sometimes sailed from New York to San Francisco in eighty-seven days. At first it was much the fashion for men to go in companies formed in their own neighborhoods. Those who could not go themselves would club together and send a substitute, as men may own shares in a ship or a machine, the substitute being allowed to keep a certain share of the profits of his own labor. [Illustration: A FATHER.]