OCR Text |
Show 326 PERSONAL ADVENTURES the northern parts, 200 ; giving an area of above 100,000 square miles. Looking west\ vard, from the summit of the Sierra, the main feature presented is the long, low, broad valley of the J oachin and Sacratnento rivers; the two valleys forming, in fact, one which is 500 tniles long and 50 broad, lying along the base of the Sierra, and bounded to the west by the low coast range of mountains which separates it from the sea. Long, dark lines of timber indicate the streams, and bright spots mark the intervening plains. Lateral ranges, parallel to the Sierra Nevada and the coast, complete the structure of the country, and break it into a surface of valleys and mountains-the valleys a few hundred, and the mountains two to four thousand feet above the sea. These form greater masses, and become more elevated in the north, where son1e peaks, as the Shasti, enter the regions of perpetual snow. Stretched alono- the mild coast 0 of the Pacific, with a general elevation in its plains and valleys of only a few hundred feet above the level of the sea, and backed by the ' IN CALIFORNIA. 327 long and lofty \Vall of the Sierra, mildness and geniality may be assumed as the character· istics of its climate. The inhabitant of corresponding latitudes, on the Atlantic side of the continent, can with difficulty itnagine the soft air and southern productions under the san1e latitudes, in the maritime region of Upper California. The singular beauty ~nd purity of the sky, in the south of this region, is characterized by Humboldt as a rare phenomenon, and all travellers realize the truth of this description. " These t\VO valleys of the Sacramento and San J oachin are discriminated only by the names of the rivers which traverse them. The Valley of the San Joachin is about 300 miles long and 60 broad, between the slopes of the coast mountain and the Sierra Nevada, with a general elevation of only a few hundred :eet above the level of the sea. It presents a vanety of soil, from dry and unproductive to well watered and luxuriantly fertile. The eastern ( \vhich is the fertile side of the valley) is intersected with numerous streatns, forming large |