noon
At any rate our visions of cheap fresh meat vanished on the hoof . The last day out we came into a wide bottomland country with oaks . The distant blue hills had grown , and had become slate-gray . At noon we discerned ahead of us a low bluff , and a fork in the river ; and among the oak trees the gleam of tents , and before them a tracery of masts where the boats and small ships lay moored to the trees . This was the _ embarcadero _ of Sutter 's Fort beyond ; or the new city of Sacramento , whichever you pleased . Here our boat journey ended . We disembarked into a welter of confusion .