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Show 207 beautifying his residence, famish him with all needed timber and fuel. In special cases, it can be made to furnish a protection to his crops and his stock from violent periodical winds. As outside the realm of exact science, but still within the sphere of legitimate speculation, it may not be amiss to inquire, too, whether enough land in some limited areas might not be gained to cultivation by planting largely the trees we have above named. It may be accepted as an axiom that the tendency of decreasing the waste, sandy areas of evaporation is, other things being equal, to increase the areas capable of cultivation. We do not know that forests- actually increase the annual rain- fall, but we do know that they enable us to gain greater permanent advantage from that which is precipitated. In Southern California, the necessity for irrigation is the rule. However, where a region lies within reach of such banks of fog as at some seasons drift in from the ocean, ( and notably so at Santa Barbara,) the necessity for irrigation is much diminished. While at Santa Batbara, we examined the asphaltum- deposit on the property of Mr. J. Wallace Moore. The point at which we saw it was between 6 and 7 miles west of the town, where there is a fine exposure of it, depending on the encroachment of the sea upon the shore bluff undermining and allowing a toppling down of the overhanging earth and asphaltum. Rising from beneath the level of the ocean to a little above it are the bituminous shales, much disturbed and inclined at a high angle. Over them is a Post- pliocene deposit with a varying thickness of from 60 to 90 feet. The asphaltum appears to be diffused through the underlying bituminous shales, and only found in a pure condition after expressed, as it were, from the slates by pressure, and probably heat. It then rises through the crevices or less compact portions of overlying soil. In this passage it is mixed with sand and gravel, and thereby made more hard. In this condition we find it lying in masses on the shore. It appears to be entirely similar to the product of the reputed oil- wells near Ojai, which, when first leaving the ground, is soft enough to flow down a moderate incline, but which soon becomes oxidized.* Though the probability of these bituminous exudations ever furnishing enough of oil to pay for working in competition with the wells of Pennsylvania is small in the extreme, yet the asphaltum is a commercial product of no small importance. Its use for roofing houses and making pavements is well known. On the route from Santa Barbara over to the island of Santa Cruz, the Steamer Hassler ( to whose gentlemanly officers we are so much indebted) passed through an " oil spring/ 7 where something like oil could be distinctly seen floating on the surface. I am unable to obtain a specimen of the substance, but it is probably intimately connected with the shore- deposit. The list of uses to whioh the aborigines put this asphaltum is a long one. We found it everywhere present among the archaeological treasures we exhumed at Santa Barbara. They made their rush baskets water- tight with a covering of it: pitched their canoes; made ornaments; used it as a glue to mend their broken household pottery ; and, for anything I know to the contrary, employed it as a paint for the face in times of mourning, as some tribes still do. It was their panacea for everything broken that required pasting, for everything pervious that must be made impervious to water. North of the Santa Barbara, and running nearly east and west toward Point Conception, are the Santa Inez Mountains. Their trend corresponds exactly with the coastline. What their influence may be in limiting the fog- bank ( to which I have already alluded) to the belt of arable land between themselves and the shore, I am not prepared to say. Notwithstanding the high temperature to which the summits attain, I can hardly help thinking they aot the part of condensers or limitations to the sweep of the fog, thus making its influence more positively beneficial of er a smaller area. Hence the slight necessity for irrigation at Santa Barbara and in its vicinity. In places they are covered with a dense growth of scrub- oaks, Adenostoma, Arctostaphylos, and Cmnotkiu, constituting the densest and most soul- trying of chaparral. The red- wood does not appear to grow south of Point Conoepoion, and the Monterey cedar does not reach so far south. Along the streams whioh put down from the mountains to the ocean cot ton- woods and button- woods are found, forming a narrow line of ahade bordering the more open ground. Oaks of two or three different species form the mass of the trees from Santa Barbara back to the mountains. It may not be inappropriate to glance a moment en passant at the climate of the coast- line from Santa Barbara to San Diego. As our observations were Bimply those taken in transitu, I am here obliged to profit by the labors of others. I am indebted to the Santa Barbara Press for the following table of temperature at that place: 1870-' 71. 1871- 72. Coldest day 42° 44° Wannest day 92° 74° * Passing down the line of flow from the Asphaltum spring, we found a living rattlesnake. It had attempted to cross, but had become fixed in the pasty mass. This may serve as a homely illustration of the consistency of the asphaltum at 100 yards from the point of exit from the ground. Crotalus was allowed to remain. |
