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from the dignified , feudal-looking President , with his " auctoritate mihi commissa , " and walking off the stage with their diplomas in their hands ; while upon the very same day , their classmate was walking up and down California beach with a hide upon his head . Still , however , we had a fine , strong breeze , and kept on our way , under as much sail as our ship would bear . Thick stockings and drawers were darned and patched ; mittens dragged from the bottom of the chest and mended ; comforters made for the neck and ears ; old flannel shirts cut up to line monkey jackets ; southwesters lined with flannel , and a pot of paint smuggled forward to give them a coat on the outside ; and everything turned to hand ; so that , although two years had left us but a scanty wardrobe , yet the economy and invention which necessity teaches a sailor , soon put each of us in pretty good trim for bad weather , even before we had seen the last of the fine . The abundance of wood and water , the extreme fertility of its shores , the excellence of its climate , which is as near to being perfect as any in the world , and its facilities for navigation , affording the best anchoring-grounds in the whole western coast of America , all fit it for a place of great importance ; and , indeed , it has attracted much attention , for the settlement of " Yerba Buena , " where we lay at anchor , made chiefly by Americans and English , and which bids fair to become the most important trading place on the coast , at this time began to supply traders , Russian ships , and whalers , with their stores of wheat and frijoles . Our ship was nothing but a mass of hides , from the cat-harpins to the water 's edge , and from the jib-boom-end to the taffrail . Two men threw the hides down from the piles in the house , two more picked them up and put them on a long horizontal pole , raised a few feet from the ground , where they were beaten , by two more , with flails , somewhat like those used in threshing wheat . As we pulled under the stern , the clerk held up the package , and called out to the mate , who was leaning over the taffrail , that the California had arrived .