dens out as you sail into the great Bay of which it is the outlet.
This is located in latitude 37 deg. 48' north and in longitude 122 deg. 24'
32" west of Greenwich, and has a depth of thirty feet on the bar while
inside of its mouth it ranges from sixty to one hundred feet. The
shores are a striking feature, and on the south side range from three
hundred to four hundred feet in height, while on the north the
hills, in places, attain an altitude of two thousand feet; and these
adamantine walls, witnesses of many a stirring event in the history of
California, are clothed in green in spring-time, while in autumn
they are brown, and from the distance resemble huge lions, couchant,
guardians of the Gate. But who gave it its name, and why is it so
called? These were my questions. Among the residents of San Francisco,
whom I asked, was a Senora whose countenance plainly indicated her
Spanish descent, and she said it took its name from the Golden Poppy
of California. This was the Gateway to the land of the Golden Poppy.
The Poppy is called Chryseis at times, after one of the characters of
Homer; and it is also known by the Spanish name, especially in the
early days, Caliz de Oro, Chalice of Gold. Another designation, used
by the poets, is Copa de Oro, Cup of Gold; while in Indian legends it
has sometimes been styled, "Fire-Flower" and "Great Spirit Flower." It
was the belief among the Indians, when they saw the people flocking
for gold from all directions, that the petals of the "Great Spirit
Flower," dropping year after year into the earth, had been turned into
yellow gold. The Golden Poppy, the State Flower of California, blooms
in great profusion and with marvellous beauty on hillside in plain and
valley, in field and garden, by lake and river, from the Sierras to
the shores of the Pacific, and it is especially abundant on the hills
which skirt the shores of the Golden Gate. Indeed in spring time these
are one mass of gold; and hence it would not require much imagination
to coin the magic name by which the gateway to one of the grandest
Bays in the world is known. An old Californian song well describes the
beauty and luxuriance of this suggestive Flower.

"O'er the foothills, through the meadows,
Midst the canons' lights and shadows,
Spreading with their amber glow,
Lo, the golden poppies grow!
Golden poppies, deep and hollow,
Golden poppies, rich and mellow,
Radiant in their robes of yellow,
Lo, th