In The City Are Works With Immense Steam Power, And From These Works Endless Cables Revolve Throughout The City, Under The Roads, In Various Directions.

In the bed of the tramway is a groove, under which is the cable, revolving at a great speed.

The driver of the car lets down his grip, which tightly holds the cable, and, of course, the car starts at full speed, and is carried along by the cable. When the driver wants to stop, he lets go his grip on the cable and applies his brake. Some of the hills in San Francisco are very steep, and the first sensation in riding on the outside front seat, while going full speed down a sharp declivity, is certainly novel, with no apparent motive power, and no apparent means of stopping. The speed, of course, is always the same, whether up or down hill, or on level ground. Telegraph Hill is 394 feet high, Clay Street Hill 376 feet, and Russian Hill 360 feet. A San Francisco Sunday is painful to one accustomed to our English ways; travelling in every form, and buying and selling are very prevalent. The Y.M.C.A. have a large building there, and get large meetings. I attended one gathering, which I addressed shortly.

San Francisco is described as having "the mildest and most equable climate known to any large city in the world." January is the coldest month, and the mean temperature then is stated to be 50 deg.. September is the hottest month, and the mean temperature then is stated to be 58 deg.. Thus only 8 deg. difference between the coldest and warmest months, and the average for the whole year is 54 deg..

San Francisco has a population of about 300,000 (including some 40,000 Chinese), is the principal city of the State of California, and the principal commercial centre on the Pacific coast. I must not, however, dwell longer on this part of my journey. On Monday, December 8th, I left San Francisco with one of my clients, Mr. C.H. Huffman, for Merced, by the 4 p.m train. The sun was shining gloriously, producing a charming effect upon the placid waters of the Bay and its beautiful surrounding hills.

SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW ORLEANS.

The train reached Merced at 10.23 on Monday night, December 8th, 1890, where I was met, and in a spacious family buggy, drawn by a pair of good horses, I was very soon at the residence of my client, Mr. C.H. Huffman. The continuous day and night travelling by rail, and the taking of voluminous notes all along, had caused a constant excitement which told upon the nerves, and for two days I felt as though I needed absolute rest, but, remembering that I had already been long absent from my office, I commenced my work at Merced the next morning. The town of Merced is the capital of the county of that name; it is not many years old, but it has a striking difference to many new small towns I have seen in the Colonies, in that it has several very good buildings and residences. It has seven churches and chapels of various denominations, some good shops, medical men, society, schools, gas, water, electricity, and a station on the main Great Southern Pacific Railway. It is undoubtedly a town which must rapidly increase in value, for this reason: My clients, Messrs. Crocker and Huffman, at a cost of some two million dollars, have tapped the Great Merced River 25 miles off, and brought water down to the town and irrigated the country round. They have formed a reservoir 640 acres in extent. Hitherto the rich lands around the town of Merced have not been irrigated, and consequently were not suitable for growing the Fruits for which California is so famous; but, now that a system of canals, formed by my clients, has irrigated their estate, extending over some 50,000 or 60,000 acres, the whole of this great area is changed in value, and is available, and will eventually be used, for the production of choice Fruits. Thus, Merced will become a centre, like other parts of California, and, being so much nearer than those other parts to San Francisco, will benefit additionally by that advantage alone. Merced is only 152 miles from San Francisco, while Fresno is 207, Bakersfield 314, and Los Angeles, 483 miles. It is rumoured that another line of railway will also be formed in connection with the present main line, and Merced would then be an important railway junction. I drove out every day with Mr. Huffman, and inspected the country for some miles around the town, including the Merced River, 25 miles off. The land designated British Colony, is, at its commencement, only two miles from the Merced Railway Station, hotel, and shops. Mr. Huffman has a most comfortable residence, and has excellent stables, well filled with first-class buggy horses, so that travelling was always an easy matter. Being a lay preacher in England, I took advantage of offers made me, and preached on the Sunday I was at Merced in two of the churches at the morning and evening services.

I left Merced on Tuesday night, December 16th, by the 10.23 train, having stayed there eight days. I immediately "turned in," and next morning (December 17th) was up as usual at 6.30, and much enjoyed the splendid scenery through which we were passing - in a mountainous country, grandly diversified with all the alternations of heights and depths, lights and darks, rich and barren, including many evidences of engineering skill - as we coursed along, now looking high up, now looking low down, and presently winding along the celebrated "loop," described as the "greatest engineering feat in the world," by which the train goes through mountain passes, creeping along the tops of eminences, then returning, crosses under itself at a low level, then, ascending, crosses over itself at a higher level, so that in its meandering course you now look down at your side on the line you have just traversed, and anon look up at your side at the line you are about to traverse.

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