Colonel Mason on one occasion killed eleven geese by one discharge of small shot.

The seasons in California are well marked.

About October and November the rains begin, and the whole country, plains and mountains, becomes covered with a bright-green grass, with endless flowers.

The intervals between the rains give the finest weather possible.

These rains are less frequent in March, and cease altogether in April and May, when gradually the grass dies and the whole aspect of things changes, first to yellow, then to brown, and by midsummer all is burnt up and dry as an ashheap.
When General Kearney first departed we took his office at Larkin's; but shortly afterward we had a broad stairway constructed to lead from the outside to the upper front porch of the barracks.