NOTEBOOK
In Roughing It he says:

In place of the grand mud-colored brown fronts of San Fran-
cisco, I saw dwellings built of straw, adobes, and cream-colored
pebble-and-shell-conglomerated coral, cut into oblong blocks and
laid in cement; also a great number of neat white cottages, with
green window-shutters 5 in place of front yards like billiard-
tables with iron fences around them, I saw these homes sur-
rounded by ample yards, thickly dad with green grass, and
shaded by tall trees, through whose dense foliage the sun could
scarcely penetrate; in place of the customary geranium, calla lily,
&c., languishing in dust and general debility, I saw luxurious
banks and thickets of flowers, as fresh as a meadow after a rain,
glowing with the richest dyes; ... in place of the Golden
City's skirting sandhills and placid bay, I saw on the one side a
framework of tall precipitous mountains close at hand, clad in
refreshing green, and cleft by deep, cool chasm-like valleys; and
in front the grand sweep of the ocean: a brilliant, transparent
green near the shore, bound and bordered by a long white line
of foamy spray dashing along the reef, and farther out the dead
blue water of the deep sea, flecked with white-caps, and in the
far horizon a single lonely sail—a mere accent mark to empha-
size a slumberous calm and a solitude that were without sound or
limit. When the sunk sank down—the one intruder from other
realms and persistent in suggestions of them—it was tranced
luxury to sit in the perfumed air and forget that there was any
world but these enchanted islands.

Went home with Mr. Damon, to his cool, vine-shaded
home—you bet.

This house and chapel where he preaches were built by
Seamen's Friends Society of New York 1833—Rev. John
Diell here till '40—died of consumption on way home, off
Cape Horn, '41. Damon arrived Fall of '42, been here
ever since, except visit home, of a year, and to California
in '49. He and Gwynn made their debut in California at
the same time and both officiated at 4th of July in Sacra-

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