ld flour for three hundred dollars a
barrel; and bought potatoes for a dollar and a half a pound. That was
when California was first known as a gold country, and so many people
went thither to seek their fortunes.

The next morning, Mr. M., one of our fellow-passengers from New York to
San Francisco took us a delightful drive about the city and suburbs. We
saw the levees, which were erected to save the city from another flood.

"What are _levees_?" asked Willie.

They are heavy banks of earth built along the margin of the stream. The
last flood took place in the winter, on December 9, 1861, and January
10, 1862. The whole city was flooded. The water rose over the table in
the dining-room of the hotel in which we stayed. Houses could be reached
only in boats, and no one knew how soon his dwelling might be undermined
and fall. A great deal of the fertile land about Sacramento was ruined
by the flood, being covered with a deep layer of gravel.

We saw the new capitol which is in process of erection, and a large,
handsome structure it will be. We passed near Sutter's Fort, where it
was first discovered that there were gold mines in this country.

In 1853, the city spread over about as much ground as it now does, when
it was destroyed by fire. The climate of Sacramento is very different
from that of San Francisco, being much warmer. It is so far from the
coast that it escapes the chilling wind that visits the latter city at
certain seasons of the year.

In the afternoon we went on board the steamer Chrysopolis bound for San
Francisco. We went through a slough (or, as the people pronounce it,
_slew_) in the river about seven miles long.

"What is a _slough_?" asked Alice.

There was a long bend in the river, of fourteen miles, so they cut a
sort of canal across it, and half the distance was saved. This canal
they call a slough.

Mr. M. told us that in one of the early years of the gold excitement,
there was an old man who had watermelons that were in great demand,
sometimes selling for five dollars apiece. The next year a great many
people wanted the seed to plant; these were sold for sixteen dollars per
ounce, but not one came up; so they suppose he boiled the seeds before
he sold them! We arrived at San Francisco towards midnight. At noon on
Saturday we took the steamboat for Oakland, which is across the bay from
San Francisco. It took its name from the number of oak-trees growing
there. They give a green and plea