Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/16



dying foliage,  its  white-cushioned  benches,  and  long serrated summits,  its  rocky  pinnacles  whose  alabaster crests glisten  lustrous  to  mariners  a  hundred  miles away, when  its  crevices  were  being  filled  with  molten gold, a  sea  of  sorrow  was  about  to  roll  at  its  base,  for the squabble  for  tliis  treasure  that  is  presently  to come  will  be  pitiful  to  see.

Split a  feni-stalk  and  place  it  in  a  dish  with  the thick ends  together,  and  the  leafy  sides  both  lying toward the  east,  and  you  have  mapped  the  drainage system of  the  California  valley. The stalks  are  the two rivers,  the  Sacramento  and  the  San  Joaquin, which, rising  respectively  at  either  end  of  the  great valley, graciously  receive  their  tributaries  as  they  wind through oak  and  poplar  vistas;  then  rolling  slowly on, ever  slowly,  once  bright  and  clear  with  happy contentment, but  presently  opaque  in  sullen  shade, on to  their  junction,  and  thence  together  to  the sea.

And it  is  along  this  eastern  side,  where  the  branches and leaves  and  leaflets  rest  on  the  edges  of  the  dish, and form  labyrinths  of  ridges,  and  subordinate  valleys upon which  are  flung  in  infinite  disorder,  bluffs, chasms, and  smoothly  rounded  stone-waves  heaped almost mountain  high,  that  we  have  the  Sierra  foot- hills, already abnormally  classic. Aside from  the petrified sentinels  left  standing  adown  the  centuries, there is  ample  evidence  of  what  Plutus  was  hammer- ing at hereabout. Left, after  laying  the  Sierra  foun- dation, were the  dead  volcanoes  which  we  see,  and their trachyte  spurs  flanking  dark  green  forests,  all intermingled with  lavender  and  buff  lava  beds  and scoriae; blistered  ashen  slopes,  whose  vegetation  is stunted  and  ill-tempered,  and  fire-riven  hills  of  purple rock, loose  and  crumbling,  to  which  cling  blasted pines and  wind-smitten  oaks. Over many  of  her deformities nature  spreads  a  seemly  covering,  hid- ino|; what  were  otherwise  the  bare   bones  of  an  un-