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Show 188 PERSONAL ADVENTURES nearest convenient spot, namely, for the most part, opposite their own doors ; thus, one would in1agine that the site of the whole town had been visited and disturbed by a succession of miniature earthquakes, w·hich, whilst they had left the houses themselves unshaken, had heaved and perched them up in the most uncomfortable positions, and in the most inaccessible places. In the very centre of the principal street, \vhich appears to have once upon a time been level, are three or four imTnense clay-pits, serving as a receptacle for dead dogs, cats, bones, vegetable refuse, and, in a word, every description of rubbish and nuisance a very dirty population can convey to or discharge into them. But my description of the town would be incomplete without adding that it is dotted about in these hollo\vs and in the sand-holes ' in the rocks, with patches of thorn, brush, and cacti, forming a singular yet refreshing contrast with the general barrenness of the region itself, the whole being surrounded by a bleak mountainous ranO'e \vhich increases in eleva-o ' IN CAI.IFORNIA. 189 tion until it blends with the clear sky, far in the distance. I ought, however, not to omit stating that this desert region is redeemed from its ungenial character by the beautiful valley of San Jose, which stretches right across the peninsula, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of California, a distance of not less than from a hundred and fifty to nearly two hundred miles. · It is with a feeling approximating to wonderment that the spectator looks do,vn upon the opening of this valley from a precipitous hill close to the fort ; so unprepared is he, by the general aspect of nature here, to behold a sandy plain thickly studded ·with luxuriant orchards and plantations, surrounded and enclosed by tropical plants of great height and beauty, with narrow paths intersecting the bushes and brushwood, and here and there a solitary ranclte perched aloft on some cornmanding crag, until the whole landscape, losing itself in the distant tnountains, fades into those soft and dreamy tints peculiar to torrid latitudes. |