OCR Text |
Show 15~ PERSONAL ADVENTURES course, the principal, whilst the two others, 'vhich both lie in a north north-easterly direction, are called respectively the San Pueblo and Suissoon, or Sooson, as it is commonly pronounced. These are connected by a strait, that of Carquines, about one mile in width, and from eight to ten fathoms deep, with a strong and rapirl current, which ren· ders the navigation somewhat difficult. These bays are fringed by small valleys opening into the adjacent country; and some of the streams have a short launch-navigation, through the medium of which produce is conveyed to the Bay. The Suissoon is, moreover, connected with an expansion of water formed by the con· fluence of the Sacramento with the San Joachin, both of 'vhich enter the Bay of San Francisco in about the same latitude as the mouth of the Tagus at Lisbon ; the valleys of the San J oachin and Sacramento forming their junction with the Bay by a delta of ~orne twenty-five miles in length, divided into Islands by deep channels, into the mouths of IN CALIFORNIA. 153 which the tide flows; so that these t'vo rivers discharge their waters into the Bay together, forming only one stream. From this general, but, I believe, accurate description of this celebrated Bay, it will be perceived that, unlike the majority of bays, it is not a simple indentation of the coast, but a little Mediterranean in itself, having bold shores and a fertile country adjacent, aud being connected with the ocean by a gate of rock, or a strait, of not more than one mile and a half at its greatest width; then suddenly opening out, as soon as it is past, into an ex pause of between seventy and eighty miles, completely landlocked, with an average breadth of from ten to fifteen miles, the head of the Bay being distant from the sea nearly forty miles, at which point con1mences its connexion with the noble and beautiful valleys of the San Joachin and Sacramento. I may add of it, that the water at the entrance and inside of it is of a depth sufficient to ad m 1· t t 11 e largest vessels that were ever constructed, which can ride here in perfect H5 |