"I

WAS on Wednesday able to join in a party to the valley through which the Monterey river flows, and was there gratified with the sight of the most extraordinary mountain I ever beheld. On one side it presented the appearance of a sumptuous edifice falling into decay; the columns, which looked as if raised with much labor and industry, were of great magnitude, seemed to be of elegant form, and to be composed of the same cream colored stone of which I have before made mention. Between these magnificent columns were deep excavations, resembling different passages into the interior parts of the supposed building, whose roof being the summit of the mountain, appeared to be wholly supported by these columns rising perpendicularly with the most mathematical exactness. These had a most beautiful appearance of human ingenuity and labor; but since it is not possible from the rude and very humble race of beings that are found to be the native inhabitants of this country, to suppose they could have been capable of raising such a structure, its being the production of nature cannot be questioned; and it may not be preposterous to infer that it has been from familiar phenomena that man has received that architectural knowledge by which he has been able to raise these massy fabricks which have stood for ages in all civilized countries."

Illustrated from photographs by S. C. Hain

So writes Captain George Vancouver in his diary on Sunday, November 16, 1794, over one hundred and eight years

The record of his explorations was printed by order of His Majesty, in London, in 1798, under the somewhat voluminous title of:

A voyage of discovery to the Pacific Ocean and round the world, in which the coast of northwest America has been carefully examined and accurately surveyed. Undertaken by His Majesty's command, principally with a view to ascertain the existence of any navigable communication between the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, in the years 1790-1795, in the sloop-of-war Discovery and the armed tender Chasham, under the command of Captain George Vancouver.

Captain Vancouver's graphic description of this wonderful California mountain is accompanied in the published volume with a full page old-time engraving "from a sketch made on the spot by J. Sykes."

My interest excited in this wonder of nature, which more than a century ago had appealed to Captain Vancouver as one of the most remarkable scenic features of his round-the-world trip, I made inquiries for some time without success as to the location of this natural castle, supposed to be not far from Monterey.

Recently, looking across the Salinas valley to the east from the heights about Paraiso Springs, on the west side of the valley, my companion called attention to a palisaded rampart of mountains rising above an intervening ridge, which he described as the locally well known pinnacles or palisades. Even at that distance (some twenty miles) the resemblance to Vancouver's castle was not difficult to imagine.

A visit to these palisades confirmed