OCR Text |
Show < [ 148] 26 settlement. Added to the lower valley, it makes the whole valley of the Sacramento 300 miles long. .llp'ril 9.-At 10 o'clock the rain which commenced the previous evening had ceased, and the clouds clearing away, we boated the river, and continued our journey eastward toward the foot of the Sierra. The Sacramento bottoms here are broad and pfettily wooded, with soil of a sand.y c?aracter. Our w~y led th~ough very h.andsome, opeD: woods, pnnCipally of oaks, mingled with a considerable quantity of the .oak-shaped pine .. Interspersed among the.se 'vere ?ouquets or thickets of mansan~ta, and an abundant white-flowenng shrub, now entirely covered with small blossoms. The head of the ~alley h.Pre (lowE!r Yalley) is watered by many small streams, having fertile bottom lands, with a good range of grass and acorns.. In about six miles we crossed a creek 20 or 25 feet 'vide, and several mil€s farther de.scended into the bro~d bottoms of a swift Etream about 20 yards wide called Co,v creek so· named as being the range of a smal1 band of cattle which ran' off here froin a party on their way to Oregon . . They, are' ent.irely wild, ~nd are. hunted hke other g~me. A large band of antelope was seen 1n the timber, and five or s1x deer came darting through the woods. An ~ntelope and several deer were killed. There appear to be two spec1es of these cle~r-both .of t~.e kind generally called black-tailed; one, a larger species frequenting the prair'ies and lower grounds· the ot~er, .much smaller, and found in the mountains only. Th~ mountains 1n· the northeast were black with clouds when we reached the. creek, an~ very soon a fie.rce hail .storm burst down on us, ~catte~ Ing our animals an? coven.ng the ground an ineh in depth with hailstones about. the size of wild cherries. The faee of the country appeared as wh1tened by a fall of snow, and the weather became unp~easantly cold. . The evening closed in with rain, and thunder rolhng around the hil_ls. Our elevation here was between 1,000 and 1,~00 feet. At sun.nse the n~xt morning the thermometer was at 33 d. hTh~ surrounding mount~Ins showe·Ll a continuous line of snow, an t e high peaks looked Wintry. Turning to the southward we ~trace.d our steps dow~ the valley, and reached Mr. Lassen'; on eer nver, on the evening of the 11th. The Sacramento bott~ms ~e~ween ~ntelop~ and De~r river were covered with oats, which a attatned thet~ ~ull height, growing as in sown fields. The country here exhibited the maturity of spring. The California popflpy was every where forming seed pods, and many plants were In ower and seed to th s · . b · . bl ge er · orne vanetles of clover were J. ust eginntng to oom By th ·ddl f h Of th C l 'f . · e mi e o t e month the seed vessels . e a. I ornia poRr py ' wh I·C h , f rom I't s c h aracten. sh.c abundance bsu: &romm;nt ~ea~~re m the veget~tion, had attained their full size; e. se~ s o t IS and many other plants, although ful1 , formed ;ere ~~II §ree1 colored, and not entirely ripe. At this time /obtained b~~~k a:d f~~l o;?uin v~ll ey seeds. of the .Poppy' and other plants, th S Y pe, while they still rematned g·reen in this part of S e J acra~entoTthe effect of a 'varmer climate 1n the valley of the t;: 24~~q~}n.A rife:a:a:3!emperat~re fo~ 14 days, from the. 10th to P ' at sunnse, 58 at 9 1n the ·morning, 64° 27 .. [ 148] I at noon, 66° at 2 in the afternoon, 69° at 4, and 58° at sunset, (latitude 40°.) The thermometer ranged at sunrise from 38° to 51°, at 4 (which is the hottest of those hours of the day when the temperature was noted) frol'l;! 5.3° to 88°, and at sunset from 49° to 65°. The dew point was 40.03 at sunrise, 47.03 at 9 in the morning, 46.01 at noon, 49.02 at 2 in the afternoon, 49.02 at 4, and 46. 06 at sunset; and the quantity of moisture in a cubic foot of air at corresponding times was 3.grs.104, 3.grs.882, 3.grs.807, 4.grs.213, 4.grs.217, 3.grs.884, respectively. The winds fluctuated between northwest and southeast, the temperature depending more upon the state of the sky than the direction of winds-a clouded sky always lowering the thennometer fifteen or twenty degrees in a short time. For the greater number of' the days above given the sky was covered and the atmosphere frequently thick, with rain at intervals from the 19th t.o the 23d. On the 25th May we returned to th'is place (Lassen's) from an excursion to the Upper Sacramento. ~he plants we had left in bloom were now generally in seed; and many, including the characteristic plants, perfectly ripe. The mean terpperature of a few days ending May was ~0 .7 at sunrise, 70°.6 at noon, and 67°.3 at sunset. Travelling south into the more open and \vider part of the valley, ,where the bordering mountains are lower and showed less snow, the temperature increased rapidly. At the Euttes-an isolated mountain ridge about six miles long and about 2,690 feet above the sea-the mornings were pleasantly cpol for a few hours, but before ten the heat of the sun became very great, though usually tempered by a refreshing bre,eze. The heat was usually greatest about four in the afternoon. The mean temperature from May 27th to June 6th, was 64°. at sunrise, 79°. at nine in the morning, 86°. at noon, 90°. at two in the afternoon, 91°. at four, and 80°. at sunset, ranging from 53°. to 79°. at sunrise-from 85°. to 98°. at four in the afternoon-and from 73°. to 89°. ·at sunset. The place of observation was at the eastern base of the Buttes, about 800 feet above the sea, latitude 39° 12', and one of the warmest situations in the Sacramento valley. At corresponding times the dew point was at 56.0 5, 62. 0 4, 66. 0 5, 68.0 2, 6&.0 6, 66.0 9, and the quantity of moisture in a cubic foot of air 5.grs.253, 6.grs.318, 7.grs.191, 7.grs.495, 7.grs.164, and 7.grs.269, respectively. We felt the heat here more sensibly than at any other place where our journeying brought us in California. The hunters always left the camp before daylight, and were in by nine o'clock, after which the sun grew hot. Game was very fat and abundant; upwards of eighty deer, elk, and bear were killed in one morning. The range consisted of excellent grasses, wild oats in fields, red and other varieties of clover, some of which were now in mature seed and others beginning to flower. Oats were now drying in level places where exposed to the full influence of the sun, remaining green in moister places and on the hill slopes. , The mean temperature of the open valley between the Buttes and the Am'erican fork from the 8th to the .21st June, was 57°. at sunrise, 74° at nine in the morning, 85° at noon, 87° at two in , , |