Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/450

376 the consideration of the present boundary of California. This, according to the XIIth article of the State Constitution, sanctioned by the act of Congress, commences at the point of intersection of the 42nd degree of north latitude with the 120th degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and runs south, on the line of the 120th degree of longitude until it intersects the 39th degree of north latitude; thence a straight line pursues a south-easterly direction to the River Colorado, at a point where it intersects the 35th degree of north latitude; thence, the boundary runs down the middle of the channel of that river, to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, as established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; thence, west and along said boundary line to the Pacific Ocean and extending therein three miles; thence, north-westwardly, following the direction of the Pacific coast, to the 42nd degree of north latitude; thence, on the line of the 42nd degree to the place of begining,—including all the islands, harbors, and bays along and adjacent to the Pacific coast.

The superficial area of the State is reduced, according to these boundaries, from the former enormous size, to one hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty square miles, or ninety-nine millions five hundred and fifty-two thousand square acres, exclusive of the islands adjacent to the coast.

The noble Empire State thus constructed lies west of the Sierra Nevada, and was wisely fashioned to avoid jurisdiction beyond the mountains. It is strongly contrasted in appearance with the sterility of the Great Basin. Crossing the at the Pass traversed by Frémont in February 1844, the traveller finds himself about four degrees south of the northern boundary of the State, and, as he looks westward down the slope of the mountains, the whole of California lies at his feet. The declivities of the Sierra, with a breadth of from forty to seventy miles, and a length from north to south of about five hundred, are heavily wooded with oak, pine, cypress and cedar, while innumerable small streams, rising in the melted snows of the lofty peaks, traverse their rugged sides. These rivulets descend through glens and gorges,—sometimes barren, sometimes luxuriant,—until they disgorge themselves into the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The first of these,—rising in the north at the base of the gigantic Shastl which lifts its snowy diadem fourteen thousand feet above the sea,—sweeps southward towards the thirty-eighth degree of latitude; while the second, oozing from the fens and marshes of lake Tulares, runs northward until it mingles with the Sacramento,—when both, swollen by their tributaries from