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Show I I 148 J 24 • creasing in breadth from 150 yards to 600 yards in the lower part of its course. During six days that . we remained here, from the 30th March to the 5th April, the mean temperature was 40° at sunrise, 52° .5. at 9 in the morning, 57°.2 at noon, 59°.4 at 2 in the afternoon, 58°.8 at 4, and 52° at sunset; at the corresponding times · tl~e dew point was at 37°.0, 41°.0, 38°.1, 39°.6, 44°.9, 40°.5; and the moisture in a cubic foot of air 2.838 grs., 3.179 grs., 2. 935 grs., 3.034 grs., 3. 766 grs., 3.150 grs., respectively. Much cloudy weather and some showers of rain, during this interval, considerably reduced the temperature, which rose with fine weath,er on the 5th. Salmon was now abundant in the Sacramento. Those which we 'obtained w~e generally between three and four feet in length, and appeared to be of two distinct kinds. It is said that as fllany as four different kinds ascend the river at different periods . The great abundance in which this fish is found gives it an important place among the resources of the country. The salmon crowd in immense numbers up the Umpqua, Tlamath, and Trinity rivers, and into every little river and creek on the coast north of the Bay San Francisco, ascending the river Tlamath to the lake near its source, which is upwards Qf 4,000 feet above the sea, and distant from it only about 200 miles. In the evening of the 5th · we resumed our journey northward, and encamped on a little creek, near the Sacramento, where an emigrant from "the States" was establishing himself, and had already built a house. It is a handsome place, wooded with groves of oak, and along the creek are sycamore, ash, cottonwood, and willow. The day was fine, with a northwest wind. The temperature at sunrise the next day, (April 6th,) was 42°, wit? a northeasterl.y .wind. We continued up the Sacramento, '!hlCh we crossed m canoes at a farm on the right bank of the nver. The Sacramento was here about 140 yards wide, and with the actual stage of water, which I was .informed continued several months, navigable for a steamboat. • We encamped' a few miles above, on a creek wooded principally with large oaks. Grass was good and abundant, with wild oats and pea vine in the bottoms. !he dar was fine,. with a yool northwesterly breeze, which had. in 1t the an of the h1gh moul,ltains. The wild oats here were not yet headed. ' The snpwy Peak of Sh.astl bore directly north, showing out high above !he other moun taws. Temperatur~ at sunset 57°, with a west wmd and sky partly clouded. · .!Jpril.7.-The temperature at sunrise was 37°., with a moist air· and a famtly clouded sky indicated that the wind was southerly al~ng the coast. · W ~ tra v~lled toward the Sh'as.tl peak, the mountam ranges, on both sides ~f the valleys, being high and rugged, and snow-covered. Some remarkable peaks in the Sierra to the eastward, are call.ed the Sisters, and, nearly opposite, the 'coast Range shows ~ promment peak, which we have called Mount Linn. L~av~ng the Sacramento, at a str.eam called Red Bank creelc, and eontmumg to the head of one of Its forks, we en rered on a high 25 [ 144] and somewhat broken upland, timbered with at least four varieties of oaks, with mansanita (arbutui Menzi~sii) and. other shr~bbery in- , terspersed. ~ remar~abl: spec1es of pmeJ havm&' leave~ m threes, (sometimes s1x to nme mches long,) w1th blmsh foha~e, and a spreading, oak-shaped top, was scattered through the hmber. I hav~ remarked that this tree grows lower down the mountains than the oth'er pines, being found familiarly associated ~ith the oaks, the first met after leaving the open valleys, and seeming to like. a warm climate. Flowers were as usual abundant. The sElend1d .California poppy characterized all the route along the valley. A species of clover was in bloom, and the berries of the mansanita were beginning to redden on some trees, while on others they were still in bloom. We encamped, at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above the sea, on a large stream called Cotton wood creek, wooded on the b'Ottoms with oaks, and with cottonwoods along the bed, which is sandy and gravelly. The water wai at this time about twenty yards wide, but is frequently fifty. The face of the country traversed during the day was gravelly 1 and the bottoms of the creek where we encamped have a sandy soil. There are six or seven rancherias ·of Indians on the Sacramento river between the farm where we had crossed the Sacramento and the mouth of this creek, and many others in the mountains about the heads of thr.se streams. The next morning was cloudy, thr,eatening rain, buLthe sky gre'Y brighter as the sun rose, and a southerly wind changed to northwest, which brought, as it never fails to bring, clear weather. We continued 16 miles up the valley, and encamped on the Sac:amento river. In the afternooh ·(April 8) the weather again grew· thick, and in the evening rain began to fall in the valley and snow on the mountains. We were now near the head of the lower valley, and the face of the country and the )Veather began sensibly to show the influence of the rugged mountains which surround and terminate it. The valley of the Sacramento is divided into upper and l<#werthe lower two hundred miles long, the upper about one hundred; and the latter not merely entitled to the distinction of uppe·r, as being higher up on the river, but also as having a -superior elevation ' of some thousands of feet above it. The division is strongly and geographically marked. The Sh?stl peak stands at the head of the lower valley,' in the forks of the rive!, rising from a base of about 1,000 fee~, out of a forest of heavy timber. It ascends like an immense column upwards of 14,000 feet, (nearly the height of Mont Blanc,) the summit glistening with snow, and visible, from favorable points of view, at a distance of 140 miles down the valley. The river here, in descending frorp. the upper valley, plupges down through a canon, falling 2,000 feet in twenty mil.es. This u'pper valley is 100 miles long, heavily timbered, the climate and productions modified by its altitude, its more northern position, and the proximity and elevation of the n'eighboring mountains covered with' ' snow. It contains valleys of arable land, and. is deemed capable of ·~ , ' # |