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Show • ., [ 148] ' . 36 On the 5th February I foun.d many shrubs and plants in bloom, in the coast mountains bordenng St. Joseph's val.ley, between Montere and the bay of San Francisco; and vegetation appeare~ much mor~ reen and spring-like, and further a~vanced, than .1n t~e p 1a 1· ns.g About the middle of Febru. ary I nohc·e d tbh e gerantum 111 n 11 r in the valley· and from that hme vegetation egan genera y t;~~oom. Cattle ,~ere obtained in February, from ranchos amo~g the neighboring hills, extreme~y fat, selected from .. the herds 1n the range. · 1 d During•the months of January and February ra1ny days~ te~nate with longer intervals of fair. and -pleas~nt weather, wh1ch 1s the character of the rainy sP.ason 1n Cahforn1a. The mean tempe;ature · the valley of St. Joseph-open to the bay of San · Franctscorrom the 13th to the 22d of February, was 50° aLsunrise, and 61° at sunset. The oaks in this valley, especially along th~ fo.ot ?f the bills are partly covered with long hanging moss-an 1nd1cabon of much humidity in the climate.. . . We rema.ined several days, 1n the latter part of February, 1n the ' upper portion of the coast mountain between St. Joseph and Santa Cruz. The place of our encampment was 2,000 feet above t~e se~, and was covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, a foot htgh 1n many places. At sunrise the temperature was 40°; at noon 60°; at '· 4 in the afternoon 65°; and 63° at sun~et; with very ~leasant weather. The mountains were wooded With many vanehes of trees, and in some parts with heavy forests. These forests are characterized by a cypress (taxodium) of extr.aordinary dimens~ons? al~ea.dy , mentioned among the trees of the Sterra Nevada, which 1s distinguished among the forest. trees of America. by i~s s':lperior size a~d height. Among many wh~ch we measured tn· thJ.S'. part of the ~ountain nine and ten feet d1ameter was frequent-eleven sometimes; but ~oing beyond eleven only i'n a single tree, which reached fourteen feet in diameter. Above two hundred feet was a frequent height. In this locality th-e bark was very deeply furrowed, and unusually thick, being fully sixteen inches in some of the trees. The tree was no'w in bloom, flowering near the summit, and the flowers consequently difficult to procure. This is the staple timber tree of the country, being cut into both boards and shingles, and is the principal timber sawed at the mills. It is soft, and easily worked, wearing away too quickly to be used {or fl oors. It seems to have all the durability which anciently gave the cypress so much celebrity. Posts which have been exposed to the weather for three quarters of a century (since the foundation of the missions) show no marks of decay in the wood, and are now converted into beams and nosts for private buildings. In California this tree is called the palo colorado. It is the king of trees. ' Among the oaks is a handsome lofty evergreen species, specific-ally different from those of the lower grounds, and in its general a·ppearance much resembling hickory. The bark i~ smooth, of a white color, and the wood hard and close grained. It seems to prefer the north hill sides, where some were nearly four feet in diameter and a hundred feet high. 37 [ 148] Another remarkable tree of these woods is called in the language of the country madrono. It is a beautiful evergreen, with large, thick, and glossy digitate leaves, the trunk and branches reddish colored, and having a smooth and singularly naked appearance, as if the bark had been stripped off. In its green state the wood is brittle, very heavy, hard, and clo~e grained; it is said to assume a red color when dry, sometimes variegated, an <.I susceptible of a high polish. This tree was found by us only in t he mountains. ~orne measured nearly four feet in diameter, and wef~ about sixty feet high. , A few scattered flowers were now showing throughout the forests .' and on the open ridges shrubs were flowering; but the bloom wa~ not yet general. . · On the 25th Febr-uary, we descended to the coast near the nortnwestern point of Monterey bay, losiAg o~r fine weather, which in the evening changed in to a cold southeasterly storm, continuing with heavy and constant rains for several days. During this time the mean tern perature was 53° at sunrise, 56°.5 at 9h., a.m., 57°.5 at noon, 54°.5 at 2h. in the afternoon,53°.4 at 4, and 52°.7 at ,sunse~. On the 28th, a thick ·fog was over the bay and on the mountains at s·unrise, and the thermometer was at 38°-15° below the ordinary temperature-rising at 9 o'clock to 59°. These - fogs preyail along the coast during a great part of the summer and autumn, but do not cross the ridges into the interior. This locality is celebrated for the excellence and great size of itS' vegetables, (especially the Irish potato and onions,) with which, for this reason, it has for many years supplied the shipping which visits Monterey. A forest of palo colorado at the foot of the mountains in this ~icinity, is noted for the great size and heig_ht of the trees. I measured one which was 275 feet in height and fifteen feet in diameter, three feet above the base. Though this wai distinguished by the greatest girth, other surrounding trees were but little inferior in size and still taller. Their colossal height and massive bulk give an air of grandeur tp the forest. These trees grow tallest in the bottom lands, and prefer moist soils and north hill sides. In situations where they are protected from the prevailing northwest winds, they shoot up to a great heighth; but wherever their heads are ,exposed, these winds appear to chill them and stop their growth. They then assume a spreadin~ shape, with larger branches, and an apparently broken sum· m1t. . The rain storm closed with February, and the weather becomIng fine, on the 1st of March we resumed our progress along the coast. Over the face of the countr'y between Santa Cruz and Monterey, and around the plains of St. John, the grass, which had been eaten down by the large herds of cattle, was now every where springing up; flowers began to show their bloom, and in the valleys of the mountains bordering the Salinas plains, (a plain of some fifty mile3 in length, mad@ by the Salinas river,) ·wild oats were three feet high, and well headed, by the 6th of March. During three days that we remained on one of these mountains, |
