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Show ... [ 148] . 32 which had become much smaller and fewer in variety, and when we halted near midday, at an elevation of 2,200 feet, we were in one of the most pleasant days of late spring; cool and sunny, with a pleasant breeze, amidst a profusion of various Bowers; many trees in dark summer foliage, and some still in bloom. Among these the white spikes of the horse-chesnut~ common through all the oak region, were conspicuous. We had again reached summer we at her, and the tern perature at noon was 70° . In the afternoon we descended to the open valley of the Sacramento, 1,000 feet lower, where the thermometer was 68°. at sunset, ·and 54°. at sunrise. This was the best timbered region that I had seen, and the more valuable from its position near the head of the lower valley of the Sacramento, and accessibl~ from. its waters. Bay of San Francisco and dependent country.-The bay of San Francisco has been celebrated, from the time of its first discovery, as one of the finest in the world, and is justly entitled to that character even under the seaman's view of a mere harbor. But when all the accessory advantages which belong to it-fertile and pictu- I resque dependent country; mildness and salubrity of climate; connexion with the great interior valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin; its v~st resources for ship timber, grain and cattle-when these advantages are taken into the acccount, with its.geographical position on the line of communication with Asia, it rises into an importance far above that of a mere harbor, and deserves a particular notice in any account of maritime California. Its latitudinal position is that of Lisbon; its climctte is that of southern Italy; settlements upon it for more than half a century ' attest its healthiness· bold shores and mountains give it grandeur; the ·extent and fertil~ ity of its dependent country give it great resources for agriculture, commerce, and population. The bay of San Francisco is separated from the sea by low moun- ' tain ranges .. Looking from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the c.oast mountains pre~ent an appar.ently continuous line, with only a single g. .a p, resemb!Ing a mountain pass. T~is is the entrance tp the grea" bay, and IS the only water communication from the coast to the interior c~untry. Approaching from the ~ea, the coast presehts a. bold outhne: On the south, t.he bordering mountains come down I? a narr.ow nd~e of broken hills, terminating in a precipi· t?us point, aga1~st which the sea breaks heavily. On the northern side, th.e mountain presents a bold promontory, rising in a few miles to a he1ght of two or three thousand feet. Between these points is tbe strait-about one mile broad, in the narrowest part and five miles long from th~ sea to the bay. Passing through this 'gate *the bay opens to the nght and left, extending in eacl~ direction ~bout • Call.ed Chrysopylce_ (Golden gate) on the map, on the same principle that the harbor of · Byzanttum (Com~ta.ntmople afterwards) was called· Chrysocera6 (golden horn.) The form of the harbor, and 1ts advantages for commerce, (and that before it became an entrepot of eastern com~erce,) suggested the nam~ to the ~reek founders of Byzantium. The form of the ~ntrance mto the bay of S~n ~ral_lctsco, and Its advantages for commerce (Asiatic in- ~ clue1ve,) suggest the name which lS gtven to this entrance. ' • ...1. ' .. [ 148] 35 miles, having a total length of more than 70, and a coast of a bout 275 miles. It is divided, by straits and projecting points into three separate bays, of which the northern two are called San 'Pablo and Suisoon bays. Within, the view presented is of a mountainous country, the bay resembling an inte~ior lake of deep water, lying between parallel ranges of mountains. Islands, which have the bold character of the shores-,-some mere masses of rock and others grass ~overed, rising to the h~ight .of three and eight hun'dred feetbrea~ 1ts surface, and add to It~ picturesqu.e appearance. Directly fronting the entrance, mountains a few miles from the shore rise about 2,000 _feet. ab~v.e the water, crowned by a forest of the lofty cyp'ress, which IS vtsible from the sea, and makes a conspicuous landmark for vessels· entering the bay. Behind, the rugged peak of Mount Diavolo, nearly 4,000 feet high, (3,770,) overlooks the surrounding country of the bay and San Joaquin. The immediate shore of the bay derives, from its proximate and opposite relation to the sea, the name of contra costa (counter- coast, or opposite coast.) It presents a varied character of rugged and broken hil1s r?lling and undulating land, .and rich alluvial shores backed by fer~ ti~e and. wo.od.ed ra~ge~, su1table for towns, villages, and farms, With wh1ch It IS beginning to be dotted. A low alluvial bottom land, several miles in breadth, with occasional open woods of oak borders the foot of the mountains around the southern arm of th; bay, terminating on a breadth of twenty miles in the fertile valley of St. Joseph, a narrow plain of rich soil, lying between ranges from two to three thousand feet high. The valley is openly wooded with groves of oak, free from underbrush, and aft~r the spring rains covered with grass. Taken in connexion with the valley of San Juan, with which it forms a continuous plain, it is fifty-five miles long and one to twenty broad, opeFling into smaller 'Valleys among the hills. At the head of the bay it is twenty miles broad, and ab()ut the same at the southern end, where the soil is beautifully fertile, covered in summer with four or five varieties <df wild clover several feet high. In many" places it is overgrown with wild mus- ' tard, growing ten or twelve feet high, in almost impenetrable fields, through which roads are made like lanes. On both sides the mountains are fertil.e, wooded, or covered with grasses and scattered trees. On the west it is protected frotn the chilling influence of the north-·west winds by the cuesta de los gatos, (wild- cat ridge,) which sepc;trates ~t from the coast. This is a grassy and timbered mountain, watered with Rmall streams, and wooded on both sides with many varieties of trees and shrubbery, the heavier forests of pine and cypress occupying the western slope. Timber and shingles are now obtained from this mountain; ana one of the recently discovered quicksilver mines is on the eastern side of the mountain, near the Pueblo of San Jose. This range terminates on the south in the .IJ.nno N ·uevo point of Monterey bay, and on the north declines into a ridge of broken hilJs abopt five miles wide, between the bay and the sea, and having the town of San Francisco on the bay shore, near its northern extremity. Sheltered from the cold winds and fogs of tlle sea, and having a 3 . . ' |