Book excerpt: Excerpt from Letters From California, Its Mountains, Valleys, Plains, Lakes, Rivers, Climate and Productions: Also Its Railroads, Cities, Towns and People, as Seen in 1876 Peculiarities of the Climate, Early History of San Francisco, Its Architectural Characteristics, Public Buildings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.