Australian swans are disporting themselves.

That, however, which attracted our attention most of all was the great
grey stone cross on the crest of the highest point of the Golden Gate
Park. This, chiseled after the fashion of the old crosses of lona and
linked with the name of St. Columba, is the monument erected by the
late George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, Pa., to commemorate the first
use of the Book of Common Prayer on the Pacific coast, when, in 1579,
under Admiral Drake, Chaplain Fletcher read Prayers in this vicinity,
either in San Francisco Bay, or a little further north in what is
called Drake's Bay. But more of this anon. As we walked from the
carriage road, beneath some spreading trees, to get a nearer view of
the Prayer Book Cross, numerous partridges were moving about, without
fear, in our pathway; and had we been minded to frighten them or
do them harm we would have been restrained by yonder symbol of our
redemption, which teaches us ever to be tender and humane towards bird
and beast and all others of God's helpless creatures. The Prayer
Book Cross is seen from afar. It looks down on the city with its
innumerable homes, on the cemeteries within its shadow, on the
Presidio with its tents and munitions of war, on the Golden Gate and
on the waters of the Pacific, and it brings a blessing to all with its
message of love and peace. It is a guide too, to the sailor coming
over the seas from distant lands. As he strains his eyes to catch a
glimpse of the coast the Cross stands out in bold relief against the
eastern sky, and it tells him that he will find a hospitable welcome
and safe harbourage within the Golden Gate. So it is dear to him after
his voyage over stormy seas as was of old

"Sunium's marbled steep"