old Egypt
in their well preserved cases. The view from the heights above the
Cliff House is magnificent. Almost at your feet, about two hundred
and fifty yards from the shore, are the Seal Rocks rising up in their
hoary forms from the sea and against whose sides the waves dash from
time to time in rythmical cadence. Here are hundreds of sea-lions,
young and old, basking in the sun or disporting themselves in the
waters, and ever and anon you hear their roaring, reminding you that
here is nature's grand aquarium. As you look northward you see the
rocky shores of the ocean for miles, while to the south your eyes rest
on a receding beach; and in a direct line some twenty miles westward
are the Farallones or Needles, a group of seven islands consisting of
barren rocks, the largest of which, comprising some two acres in area,
has a spring of pure water and is surmounted by a lighthouse. Here too
are vast numbers of sea-lions and wild birds of the sea, which make
these islets their home, nothing daunted by the billows which roll
over them in wind and storm. Surely it is a picture of the steadfast
soul in the midst of commotions, when the waves of the sea of human
passions "are mighty and rage horribly!" As you look out toward the
Farallones, as lights and shadows fall on them, you almost imagine
that they are ships from distant shores ploughing their way to the
Golden Gate. But what of the Golden Gate, on which our eyes now rest?
The name naturally recalls to mind the "Golden Gate" in the wall of
Theodosius, in Constantinople, with its three arches and twin, marble
towers, now indeed walled up to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy
that the Christian Conqueror who is to take the city will enter
through it. A similar belief prevails concerning the Golden Gate of
the Temple Area in Jerusalem, which is also effectually barred. But
whoever named it doubtless had in mind the "Golden Horn," that noble
right arm of the Bosphorus, embracing Stamboul and its suburbs for
five miles up to the "Sweet Waters of Europe." There are indeed some
correspondences between the two. As the wealth of the Orient flows
into the Golden Horn, the harbour of Constantinople for many
centuries, so the riches of commerce, the products of great states
west of the Rocky Mountains, and the treasures of the Pacific, pass
through the Golden Gate. The Golden Gate too is about five miles in
length, although at its entrance it is a little over a mile wide and
wi