Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-21
AROUND THE WORLD.

Of CaIIfornia'-The Growth of the l State-SmRrt Birds-The Lick Observa- | tory, San Frazcisco-Oh for Yokohama 1 -Scenss and Incidents of the Voyage. l STEAMER OCEANIC, Oct. 10.
 l To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
 For thirteen days we have been blowing l our way through this painless Pacific; and
 still the end seems very far distant. brief 1 outline of the journey pursued since our last | letter ahall serve as prelude to the deecrip- | ton of typical modern voyage on the Pa- l ciic. Bidding Salt Lake reluctant adieu. I took the train at Ogden for San Francisco 1 amid blinding sand storm. Upon asking 1 the conductor what WAS the ordinary dura- ton of one of these western sand. storms, elicited the cheering information, "Three
 days :" By happy chance the one in ques-
 tion subsided in few hours not, however,
 until had been led to profoundly pity the early emigrants who perished ignominiously
 on these western plains in pre-railroad days, when overtaken by one of the furious storms. As 1t was, even after the storm had really subsided, the alkali sifted in through every crevios in the car, and through the solid wood, verify believe, until life was practi- cally burden. AS the Great American Des- ert unfolded itself to our view this alkali grew whiter and deeper, the towns grew smaller and further apart, and the heat be- came more oppressive. Wherever a tiny community was to be found it appeared that ] the Chinese did ''much more abound" and
 the evidences of their untiring industry were upon the surface. The Chinese make excel l lent section hands, as the superb condition l of the Central Pacific railway for it's entire length attested. I twas led constantly to
 wonder at this admirable condition of the road. The only remaining evidence at hand of the labor of mankind was in the old aban- doned Union Pacific grade, which is still plainly visible, and parallels the Central Pa | ciic essentially for three hundred miles west ! of Ogden. Will this grade ever be utilized | by some company which shall attempt the | same thing which the builders of the Nickel | Plate successfully attempted at the expense | of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern | Some people say that the next road will run ! through Nevada further to the south, and ! aver confidently that it is sure to come. All ! agree, however, that there are all the trans
 continental lines that the country can sup. | port for some time to come.
 Deeolate plains continued until we reached 1 the Truckee meadows, bordering on the Tiuckee river, twenty-four hours ride dis tant, refreshing fertile district after so long | 8 barren waste. Here the train paused at Reno, a really enterprising city of some | 1000 or 5000 souls, besides being the gate | to the interior of Nevada. The activity and 1 thrift of this city, and also of Truckes and | other neiRhbcring villages, seems to repre- | sent more than a single decade of history, l and appears to be one Of the substantia! 1 kind. Here were great many sluggish looking Indians on the depot Llatform, and during the halt for breakfast I sounded one of the more intelligent of these. "Why is | it," l said after some conversation, that ! your people do not care to take advantage of ! the wave of education that has now reached ! ing himself up with something of old time pride, ''red man no helpless. White man l want know something, Where my ! book, where my book p Red man need no book find out himself.''
 The deceptive appearance of land along in
 this country commanded my attention re- psatedly. Time and again would find my | self saying ''that lake about mile away there,' only to bs corrected by the statement ! that the lake or other object of comment was eight or ten miles distant. The Sierras were I ascended and descended, Lake Donntr V s admired and Cape Horn shuddered If with all the zest that forty-fTe miles of exaspera ting snowsheds and damp tunnels would per ! init; and the valley of the Sacramento was entered during seorching September after noon. There was grim sarcasm about this, my first experience of California climate. It was oppressively, stifing hot such day as would bear off the palm in any part of the United States At midnight in Sacramento thermometers registered nlnety-tHo degrees, and at San Francisco within six degrees of that limit But if my sufferipgs were acute, those of the citizens were simply excrucia- ting. Unused to such extremitiss of temper ature they could talk of nothing else but the weather. Indeed, that day and the three fol- lowing days which were almost if not quite as sultry, have been set down in the Califor- mia calendar as among the remarkable clima- tic experiences of the decade. A snow storm could hardly have excited more remark.
 Riding through California proved as inter esting as the Great American Desert had been monotonous. At Benicia our train was split in two and rolled upon the largest ferry boat in the world, the ''Solano," which you have often seen described, and thus transported across the beautiful bay to Port Costa. From here to the beautiful and substantial city of Oakland the road ran along the edge of the bay, now skirting at the bottom of foothills, now bordering on extensive orchards, now passing through honey-farms, now penetra- ting real Floridian junges for 8 few mo- ments and all the time girdling prosperous villages. had no idea that such an advanced development was to be met with in the Col den State. With such things accomplished, what may not be possible in the future? The last census showed population of 800, 900 people in the State, believe; and when you ask citizen how many people the State is capable of supporting. he will complacently reply, Forty million" Every county in Gal ifornia would make good respectable State at least in dimensions, and in most cases in resources too. While the immigration busi- ness is being overdone in many of the new mushroom States and Territories, so far as could see the stampede for this extreme western State Is of healthy character.
 observed that the Catholics have 8 pow erful hold upon California. Their cenvents, colleges, seminaries and other institutions are to be seen everywhere, and wear the external evidences of great wealth. Doubtless this extensive influence is due to the fact that the first white settlers in the State were Span iards.
 I have noticed that many of the giant pines in central California are riddlsd with bullet like holes from the ground up as high as twenty fest. For time it was a my stery to me as to what caused these psrforations but the problem was solved one day when 8 friend took me aside and bade me watch a couple of woodpsckers. One was at work boring holes (the mals bird, my informant said), while the other (the female) stood by with an acorn in her bill Presently the male seized the acorn, stripped it of its cup and thrust it into the receptacle so neatly carved in the tree. ''It is too carly" said my friend, ito find many of the holes filled. The acorns have not yet entirely ripened, and the holes that we see are either last years holes or are holes made in advance this year by the industrious males. The part of the
 female Is simply to run and fetch the acorns.
 As you will observe, the hole Is always just large enough to admit the acorn and not al-
 low of it's protruding. These scorns are de-
 posted here mainly during the month of Oc-
 tober, and at it's close the store house is SUD-
 posed to be full. Here is where the inteli-
 geuce comes in. These birds know that eve
 " acorn so deposited will contain nice fat
 grub sometime during the winter, and as the birds never need to leave this climate,
 that is the way nature has taught them to
 provide for their wants during the rainy
 season. suppose there is 8 sentiment of
 honor among the majority of them, whereby each will confine himself to his own planta-
 tion though doubtless there are drones and thieves among the inhabitants of the air as we'll as everywhere else. The great majority of the birds are industrious, and there ap- pears to be system which i5 rigidly adhered to. Very likely there is 8 system of disci- pline also for the predators. You will find
 these seemingly bullet-ridden pines all through the Yosemite country.' How is that for instinct?
 You have heard vague remarks now and then about the coming Lick observatory on