Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/89

 length from North to South, sixty miles, and fifteen in width. It is said to be a beautiful, clear sheet of water, surrounded by a belt of fine alluvial prairie, which also, is encircled by a wall of high Mountains, covered in many places, with groves of Red Wood and Oak, and giving rise to numerous rivulets, which meander across the plain, and empty into the Lake. – This is perhaps, the most beautiful, romantic, and picturesque portion of the Providence; but its very secluded situation, having, as far as has yet been learned, no good natural communication with the surrounding country, renders it less valuable. North of the Great Lake, the country is, as far as the Clamuth Valley, little else than a vast cluster of mountains; which, connected by the Sacramento Hills, join with the spurs of the California Mountains, and form the Northern boundary to the habitable portion of the province.

The Southern arm of the Bay of San Francisco, is surrounded by a belt of level land; which, on the North side, is six or eight miles in width, and very fertile. Francisco or Yerba Buena is a small town, situated on the point of land south of the entrance of the Bay, and has a population of about two hundred. – the land upon which it is built, rises gradually one mile from the Bay, and descends gradually the same distance, to the Ocean; and its situation, for a commercial town, is generally considered to be the best, and most advantageous, in California. The country South of the Bay, and between the St. Wakine and the coast, is also diversified with mountains and valleys. The mountains are high and some of them are barren. The valleys are fertile, from three to four miles wide, and from forty to fifty long. Their course is from South East to North West; and the streams, by which they are watered, empty into the Ocean. They have rich valleys four and five miles in width, covered with grass and clover, and separated by high mountains; some of which are covered with forests of Red Wood and scattering Oaks, and others are barren. Among the barren mountains, in many places silver is found in abundance; but little or no attention has ever been paid to it, and none of the mines have yet been worked. The Ore is said to be of good quality, and easily obtained. This part of the territory is well watered, and affords some good sites for machinery.

Monte Rey, the Capitol of the Province, is situated at the termination of one of these valleys, near the mouth of a small river, and on the bay of Monte Rey, an inlet affording a harbor for shipping, but too much