seemed to have joined with a regular
procession of small boats, hastening in the same direction as she.
Some were sail-boats, many were skiffs and launches; all were crowded,
and in a great hurry.

The bay narrowed, and between two points called San Pablo (or Saint
Paul) and San Pedro (or Saint Peter), guarded by islands called the
Brothers and the Sisters, the _Mary Ann_ entered San Pablo Bay, which
really was a round basin forming the north end of San Francisco Bay.

The bell below was ringing for dinner, but the _Mary Ann_ had turned
more toward the east, and against the land, in front, could be seen the
masts of more shipping.

"That must be at Mare Island, and at Benicia beyond," said Mr. Grigsby.
"You know how Mare Island gets its name? Because there used to be a
big herd of elk on it, led by an old mare. The Government's going to
make a naval station of it. Benicia is the town General Vallejo
donated the site of. There's where the army headquarters are being
built. Well, guess we'll have time to eat, before we get there."

"Come ahead, Charley," bade his father.

The dinner really was very good; and if anybody still was hungry, a
sign on the cook's galley announced, invitingly: "Pies One Dollar."
Charley saw several of the miners buying pies and eating them.

When the Adams party came up on deck again, the _Mary Ann_ had passed
Mare Island, where some vessels, among them two ships of war, were
anchored, and was entering a narrow opening named the Straits of
Carquinez. On the right the mountains approached very close. On the
left appeared more shipping, and the houses and tents of a town. This
was Benicia, and a prettily located place it was, too, with the ground
sloping upward, behind it, and the massy brown crest of Mount Diablo,
landmark seen from the Golden Gate, rising across the strait, before.

Beyond Benicia the straits opened into Suisun Bay--a pocket into which
emptied the Sacramento River and the San Joachin River. The San
Joaquin River came in on the south. Anybody going to the southern gold
mines would sail up the San Joachin to Stockton; but the _Mary Ann_ was
bound for the Sacramento and the northern mines; so she kept on,
through Suisun Bay, past a town of one house, on the south side, and
named (people said, laughing) the New-York-of-the-Pacific, for the
mouth of the Sacramento.

XVII

ON TO THE DIGGIN'S

Suisun Bay was bordered with reedy marshes where the rushes grew