The journey from Sacramento to San Francisco may be made over the ninety mile direct route via Benicia or the longer way through Stockton. The Benicia Route is through deciduous fruit sections, of which Davis and Elmira are business centers and junctions respectively for lines through the west side of the Sacramento Valley and up the beautiful Capay Valley. The Overland Route from Elmira follows along the marshes of upper Suisun Bay, where tens of thousands of wild ducks and wild geese find a home. At Suisun, a branch line leads to the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, famous these forty years past for fruits and wine and rural loveliness. Suisun has many fruit establishments. Beyond, fifteen miles, is Benicia, with its Government post and arsenal. [Illustration: UP AT SUMMIT THE DOMAIN OF KING SNOW, BEAUTIFUL TO LOOK AT THOUGH FRIGID IN WELCOME, IS SWIFTLY LEFT BEHIND] Thence the great double ferryboat, the Solano, swallows the train, and moves across the picturesque Carquinez straits, a mile wide, to Port Costa. This is the largest ferryboat in the world, and perhaps the only double one. Its two paddle wheels may be made to revolve in opposite directions, turning the boat around almost in its own length. As one crosses, to the left lies Suisun Bay, to the right, San Pablo Bay. The ferry unloads its trains at Port Costa, place of mammoth grain warehouses with capacity for more than 350,000 tons. Thirty deep-sea ships may unload here at one time. [Illustration: THE TRAIN DROPS QUICKLY FROM THE REGION OF PINES AND FROST INTO A FAIRYLAND OF PALMS AND FLOWERS] A few miles beyond Port Costa is Vallejo Junction; thence the ferry boat El Capitan carries passengers the intervening four miles to Vallejo, and to Mare Island Navy Yard. From the train you may catch a glimpse of the warships at anchor, of the wooded island where Uncle Sam has three thousand employees, and of Vallejo, upon its hills facing it, a lively city of 12,000 people. The great tower opposite Vallejo Junction carries across the straits the transmission wires of the electric companies that gather the weight of falling water in the Sierra Nevada and deliver it to San Francisco and the bay counties to move street cars, light cities, and keep the wheels of industry whirring. Along this water front from between Vallejo Junction and Oakland are great manufactories. Here are the Selby Smelting works where something better than alchemy brings gold from rough rock; here (at a safe distance) are powder works and soap factories, steel and wire works, sugar refining works, syrup, oil and borax refineries, canneries and tanneries and various wood working establishments. Past Richmond, a manufacturing city, and Berkeley, a beautiful residence city of 40,000 people, the Overland Route leads to Oakland.