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Show CHAPTER XL THE DIGGER INDIANS. Although Lower California remains to- day as an awful example of some tremendous bouleversement in the Mio cene age, a land of gloom and largely of abject sterility, yet it has redeeming features, and there are hopes of salvation for this gruesome peninsula. For example, there have lately been discovered on the Gulf coast large, very large deposits of sulphur, and north of La Paz, im mense beds of almost pure salt. At and around the Cer-abo islands, the pearl fisheries, once so productive and valuable, are again becoming promising. In the northern part of the peninsula there is much excellent grazing land, calculated at 900,000 acres, where alfalfa, burr and wild clover, and fields of wild oats, four feet long and full of grain, thrive. Along the shores of the Bay of San Marco they are now quarrying from vast beds the finest alabaster in America. At Todos Santos there are large quarries of white and variegated marble, and in the neighboring mountains great deposits of copper ore carrying much silver. At Ensenada the Rothschilds con trol the mines, and have erected large smelting works to reduce the ore. Lower California has two capitals, Ensenada, on the North Pacific coast, and La Paz, far down on the gulf. The tremendous barriers of mountains and deserts be tween the two coasts and the distance by water around Cape San Lucas, have made two capitals a necessity. La Paz, at the head of a fine, deep bay of the same name, has a population of about 3,000, nearly all Mexicans. It |
