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THE LIGHTHOUSE.

itself--against rain and wind and the decay of time.
   While prolific in legends and memories, history is not the only vivifying current in Marin, and though linked inseparably with the past, she is not a worn and decrepit matron relying artifice solely to revive her charms, but a young and vigorous maiden, in whom the ambitions, powers, and possibilities are all centered but untried.

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CLOUD-HOSTS.


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   That a new era is awakening for this region is without doubt. Large tracts of land formerly held intact are now being divided into building lots, and the rapidity with which these are selling portends a rapidly increasing population.
   Various railroads are contending for rights of way, and countless rumors are in circulation, any of which means a changed aspect for the County.
   The Marin Terminal is constructing, a route from Petaluma

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WHERE THE WAVES BREAK.

to Point San Pedro, and two railroad companies have filed articles of incorporation for the avowed purpose of making some points on Marin's shore the land terminus for railroads from San Francisco to points in the northern part of the State.
   The recent purchase of Silva Island, in Richardson's Bay, by the officials of the Western Pacific gives credence to a rumor that, a long wharf being constructed from this Island, the company would institute a terminus there.
   The facilities which this County offers for a railroad center are undeniable; while the monopolistic control of the surrounding Bay terminals renders another railroad outlet a practical


140

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THE GLORY OF THE DYING DAY.

necessity, and its adjacency to San Francisco and the excellent harbors which skirt its shores make Marin a natural and practical center.
   Without doubt the ensuing years will witness many radical changes for this northern peninsula.
   With the increase in population there is every probability that a connection from Point San Pedro across to the Belt Line on the Contra Costa shore will be consummated, linking the Bay counties by a boat ride of scarce fifteen minutes.
   The new coaling station which the Government will erect at California City, a small place near Tiburon, is another enterprise in the County, which will call for the expenditure of more than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is said that the Bureau of Equipment of the Navy Department has already signed with a New York firm to begin on this.


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   Having reached the limits of Marin's enterprises, and territory, Point Reyes, from which westward stretches an apparent infinitude of sea, to where the sun, now dipping on the verge of the horizon, casts its refulgent beams, I gazed backward on Marin which lay behind me glowing in the glory of the dying day.
   The indented shore, on whose cliffs nature has hung no tapestry of verdure, now enshrouded in the lambent haze, no longer looked as if composed of material objects, but rather like its luminous wraith emerging from the sea. And as the mists of evening veiled it gradually from my view I murmured:
   "There is a future as well as a past for this little County, a future not painted in the dim tints of the fading day, but in the bright, glorious radiance of the expectant morrow."

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