Although the waters were described in 1849 as being of the Sacramento and the mountains in the background as being the snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada, other, very early descriptions referred to the body of water as San Francisco Bay. In fact, in a letter to Lyon dated two days before the seal was approved by the convention, Garnett described the landscape as a view of the Bay of San Francisco and its vessels, and in 1899, Garnett's brother referred to the mountain as Mount Diablo, which could back up Robert's view (if Minerva is placed in San Francisco and 'up' is toward the east).