The Golden Gate Park, a half-mile wide, stretches from the city three
miles to the ocean shore, the western extremity being mainly the
sand-dunes of the coast, while the eastern portions have been
reclaimed, improved and planted with trees. Here are tasteful
monuments. The author of the _Star-Spangled Banner_, Francis Scott
Key, is commemorated by Story, and the Spanish discoverer of the
Pacific Ocean, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, by Linden, unveiled in 1898.
Here also rises Strawberry Hill, an eminence giving an unrivalled
outlook. Adjoining the park are the great cemeteries of the city,
Laurel Hill and the Lone Mountain, with others, the Presidio being to
the northward. To the westward, on the ocean front, is the historic
landmark of the coast--Point Lobos, or the "wolves"--having on its
elevated surface the Sutro Heights, where the sandhills have been
converted into a fine estate and garden, and out in the sea, a cable's
length from shore, are the celebrated Seal Rocks, which are nearly
always covered with seals basking in the sun. Some are very large, and
their movements are quite interesting, their curious barking being
distinctly heard above the roar of the surf. To the northward of Point
Lobos is the ocean entrance to the Golden Gate. The portals are a mile
apart, and seen from the sea its guardian heights rise two thousand
feet on the left hand, stretching up to the peak of Tamalpais to the
northward. On the right hand the heights are lower, but still lofty.
The slopes are bare and sandy, and between them within the strait can
be distinctly seen the island fortress of Alcatraz, guarded on the one
hand by Goat Island and on the other by the high green slopes of Angel
Island. Up on the Presidio proudly floats high above the shore the
American flag standing out in the breeze. Behind it is the great city.
This Golden Gate seen from within, looking westward, is a narrow pass,
giving a vista view of the broad Pacific, its waves rolling towards us
thousands of miles from the distant shores of China and Japan.
* * * * *
Here ends this pleasant recital. The desire has been to give an idea
of the vast and wonderful land we live in, and to impress the noble
and patriotic thought of Thoreau's so essential to all of us: "Nothing
can be hoped of you, if this bit of mould under your feet is not
sweeter to you than any other in the world." We have travelled over
this broad land of ours from the tropics to the Arctic Sea, and from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and as our journey closes, with Whittier
can sing:
"So shall the Northern pioneer go joyful on his way;
To wed Penobscot's waters to San Francisco's Bay;
To make the rugged places smooth, and sow the vale with grain;
And bear, with Liberty and Law, the Bible in his train:
The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea,
And mountain unto mountain call, Praise God, for we are free!"