Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/772

Rh 696 CALIFORNIA adjacent ; and these little patches of country are very fertile and adapted to the growth of tropical and semi- tropical plants. By far the greater portion of the region, however, is extremely barren and forbidding; although occasional deep ravines and narrow valleys offer a marked contrast to the general sterility of the rest of the country. The northern division of the peninsula is considerably broken by mountain ranges, resembling in this respect the southern extremity. The culminating point is put down on the American hydrographic charts at 9130 feet in altitude, and it is called Mount Calamahue. Between the ranges are broad valleys, covered with grass, and said to possess some agricultural value, although as yet almost entirely unoccupied. The dryness of the climate is the characteristic feature of the peninsula of Lower California; and although there are no reliable statistics of the rainfall it is undoubtedly very small. It is, indeed, very irregular, there being long periods of absolute dryness, in certain regions at least. The yearly average fall over the whole peninsula, for a long period of years, would perhaps not exceed three or four inches. As in the drier portion of Upper California, so here, when the rain does fall, it occasionally comes down in almost destructive quantity, over a very limited area, in the form of what are popularly known as &quot;cloud-bursts.&quot; Owing to the dryness of the climate in part, and also to the character of the Mexican Government, all the numerous attempts which have been made to settle Lower California have proved failures. The population at present is estimated at from 8000 to 15,000, about two-thirds of whom live near the southern extremity of the peninsula. The harbours on both coasts are numerous, and that of Magdalena Bay is hardly inferior in extent and availability to the Bay of San Francisco itself. Whale -fishing on the west coast, and especially about Sebastian Viscaino Bay, was, a few years ago, carried on very extensively. In the winter of 1848 there were fifty American ships anchored in the bay and lagoons of Magdalena, chiefly engaged in capturing the &quot; California Grey &quot; whale (Rhaclnanectes glaucus, Cope). The pearl-fisheries of Lower California have also for many years been of some importance ; they are conducted by companies, and the divers are chiefly Yaqui Indians. The total value of the pearls obtained, within the last century and a half, has been estimated at five or six millions of dollars ; but this, of course, can hardly be considered as being anything more than a rough approximation. On the whole, the prospects of Lower California are not very cheering ; dryness and sterility are the dominating features of a very large portion of the country. The emigration schemes have all failed, and not without considerable suffering to the unfortunate people who from time to time have been deluded into the belief that the peninsula was a rich and fertile region. The attempts at mining for copper, which have been made at various points north of Triunfo, have all proved unsuccess ful. THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. Area. This is what is now always meant when the word &quot; California &quot; alone is used. It is in part the equivalent of the &quot; Upper California&quot; (Alta California) of the Spanish, the present state of Nevada, and also the territories of Arizona and Utah, as well as parts of Wyoming and New Mexico, having been also included under that somewhat vague designation. Cali fornia extends from the boundary already defined on the south to the parallel of 42, which is the dividing line between this State and Oregon. On the east, the 120th meridian forms the boundary from 42 south to the intersection of that meridian with the 39th parallel, which takes place within the waters of Lake Tahoe, near its southern end. From this point the boundary runs obliquely in a south-easterly direction to the intersection of the 35th parallel with the Colorado River, and thence down the river to the Mexican boundary line opposite the mouth of the Gila. The whole area thus embracsd has been variously estimated at from 155,000 to 188,981 square miles. The last-mentioned figures are those given in the latest document published in connection with the United States census, General Walker s Statistical Atlas, as well as in the Report of the Commissioner of the United States General Land Office for 18GG. It is believed, however, that the first-named figures are much nearer the truth than the other higher statement, and that the area of California is somewhere between 155,000 and 160,000 square miles. Topography. The surface and climate of California, although extremely varied in character, bear everywhere a peculiar impress, very different from that of the Atlantic coast and Mississippi Valley States. The division of the year into two seasons the wet and ths dry marks this portion of the Pacific coast in the most decided manner, and this natural climatic area coincides almost exactly in its extension with that of the State of California itself. Soon after crossing the Oregon line, we enter a region of summer and winter rains ; and, in Lower California, although the entire precipitation is exceedingly small, it is, on the whole, decidedly tropical in its character. Before, however, the nature of the Calif ornian climate can be understood, it will be necessary to give some account of the physical structure of the State, and to indicate the interesting and somewhat peculiar character of the relief of its surface. California may be divided into three quite distinct portions, and these are very different from each other in importance, the central being much the most densely populated, and in every respect the most valuable. This central portion is embraced between the parallels of 35 and 40, and has, on its eastern side, the Sierra Nevada, and on its western the Coast Ranges, with the Pacific Ocean at their western base. Between these two mountain chains lies the Great Central Valley, which forms so marked a feature in the topography of the state. This valley is drained by the Sacramento River, flowing from the north, and the San Joaquin from the south, the two uniting about midway between the northern and southern extremities of the valley, and entering the Bay of San Francisco through Suisun and San Pablo bays, which latter is, in fact, but the northern expansion of San Fran cisco Bay itself. Suisun Bay, on the other hand, is rather the partly submerged delta of the united rivers, being shallow, and containing large, low islands covered with a dense growth of &quot; tule &quot; (Scirpus palustris}. The entire length of the Great Valley is about 450 miles ; and its breadth, which is small in its northern part, and gradually increasing towards the south, averages about 40 miles, including the lower foot-hills, so that the entire almost level area contains about 18,000 square miles. The direction of the valley is parallel with that of the ranges between which it is enclosed, or about N. 31 W.; but it gradually takes a more northerly course to the north of the Bay of San Francisco, in harmony with the change in the trend of the coast beyond the parallel of 39. From the mouth of the Sacramento to Redding, at the northern head of the valley, the rise is 55G feet in 192 miles; and from the mouth of the San Joaquin to Kern Lake it is 282 feet in 2 GO miles. A striking feature of the Sacramento River is the fact that for 200 miles north from the mouth of the Feather River it does not receive a single tributary of any note, although walled in by high mountain ranges. Indeed, the whole of the Great Valley is thus surrounded ; the only break being at San Francisco, where the channel which connects it with the sea