mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i4-014

--123--

entered into a spacious, almost round basin, surrounded by
green hills covered with oak and laurel groves, the green
leaves of which were not withered at all in spite of its
being the middle of November. At a distance of two or three
versts from the south shore, the only building on this side,
called the "Presidio of San Francisco" by the Spaniards,
presents itself to the eye on a flat elevation. This is the
domicile of the commandant, two officers, and about 40 sol-
diers. On the northern shore are seen scattered buildings
of the mission of San Rafael. The small, high, cone-shaped
island, San Anzhuelo, situated in the middle of the harbor,
hid from our eyes the passage into another basin, which will
be mentioned below.

At San Francisco

The port of San Francisco is rather turbulent, especially at the place where we dropped anchor, not far from the en-
trance opposite the "presidio." The surge of the ocean,
from SW and W goes straight into the bay, and although the agita-
tion breaking against the "faralones" and subsequently against
the capes bordering the strait weakens, nevertheless, it some-
times is so strong that twice, because of these winds, we
were forced to cast on a second cable to the anchor [?] facing the sea be-
cause we were fertoing. * The surf continued constantly against

*Fertoing means anchoring with two anchors dropped on
opposite sides at a distance of a cable or more from the ship;
that is, at 100 and 150 sazhens so that the ship stands in the
middle. This manner of lying at anchor is generally used in
places where there are strong tidal currents and then the
anchors are placed in the direction of the current.