church is not backward in this respect. St. Margaret's
School for girls, and St. Matthew's School for boys, as well as the
Church Divinity School of the Pacific, at San Mateo, where Bishop
Nichols resides, and the Irving Institute for girls, and Trinity
School in San Francisco, are an evidence of what she is doing for
the welfare of the people intellectually, aside from her spiritual
ministrations in the dioceses of California and Los Angeles and the
Missionary Jurisdiction of Sacramento. Mr. Young was forward to
mention the fact that in Berkeley there is the large and influential
parish of Saint Mark with a list of nearly four hundred communicants;
and this is a great factor for good in the life of such a unique
University town. As my eyes turned away from Berkeley, I naturally
recalled the great Bishop of Cloyne, after whom the place is named;
and as I took into view the wider range of the coast lands, and the
blue waters of the magnificent Bay, some fifty miles in length, and,
on an average, eight miles wide, and reflected on the significance
which attaches to this favoured region, and the influences which
go out from this seat of power, and fountain head of riches, I
instinctively recalled the noble lines which the eighteenth century
prophet wrote when he mused, "On the Prospect of Planting Arts and
Learning in America:"

"Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last."

East of us, in picturesqueness, as in a panorama spread out, were the
counties of Alameda and Contra Costa, with their receding hills, and
Mount Diablo, 3,855 feet in height, lifting up its head proudly.
Farther to the south was the rich and beautiful valley of Santa Clara,
with its orchards and vineyards. On the west across the Bay were the
counties of San Mateo, and San Francisco, with their teeming life,
covering a Peninsula twenty-six miles long, and extending up to the
Golden Gate; while off to the north, and bordering on the ocean was
Marin in its grandeur, crowned with Tamalpais, 2,606 feet above the
sea;--and skirting San Pablo Bay was Sonoma with its vine-clad vale.
There were the islands of the Bay also, which attracted our attention.
Not far from the Oakland pier is Goat Island rising to the height of
340 feet out of the waters, and consisting of 300 acres. It was brown
on that October morning when I first saw i