Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/456

380 through a region at present very little known or valued, yet future explorations may show it to be valuable. Its deep colored waters, similar to those of the Missouri and Red rivers east of the mountains, indicate that it probably has not passed through an entirely ungenerous soil. The valley of the Gila, whose waters are clear, is known to be barren.

The Sacramento runs from north to south through an inclined alluvial prairie, and is described as a deep, broad and beautiful stream. It flows through a fine region, and is navigable for vessels of considerable draught as high as the settlements in the neighborhood of Sutter's original location. The principal tributaries of this river, also, originate in the melting snows of the Eastern Sierra, and are known as the Antelope, Deer, Mill and Chico creeks, and the Butte, Dorado, Plumas or Feather, Yuba, Bear and American rivers. Cottonwood creek and some other smaller streams are disgorged into it from the slopes of the Western or Coast Range. The Trinity and a few at the north, run into the Pacific.

In order to comprehend the agricultural and mineral value of California, it is necessary to glance at the structure of the region. Upon the forty-first parallel of latitude, in a fork of the Sierra