Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/91



be the descendants of Americans, English, French, Dutch, or of any other people, except those whom we have excepted.) We have never traveled through Lower California, and are, therefore, incapable of making statements concerning it. But we have been informed, by those who were acquainted with it, that a great portion of it is mountainous, dry, and sterile; and especially the Peninsula of California; and, although we have never tested, by actual observation, the correctness of this description, yet we have some corroborating evidence of its truth; since we have observed, in proceeding South, from the Bay of San Francisco, that the country becomes, as we advance, gradually less fertile, and less favorable to vegetation; the cultivated land, requiring frequent irrigation, to counteract the effect of the Summer droughts: we have also observed that the country becomes more mountainous; the valleys less productive; and that timber, is often, almost entirely wanting. From this, we would conclude, and we think, not without a good degree of reason, that in advancing still farther to the South, we would, probably, find the country agreeing with the description, which our informants have given. The fact, that there are so few foreigners in that portion of the country, leads to the opinion that there is little inducement for them to settle there. Were it otherwise, we might be sure of finding Americans, at least; for there is no country, of considerable extent, upon the earth's surface, which offers either pleasure or profit, where some of our adventurous countrymen, are not to be found, unless their entrance is prohibited by the laws, or prevented by opposing arms. Between the Northern and the Southern arms of the Bay of San Francisco, there is a range of high lands commencing, which, after running a short distance in a South East course, trends away to the South, until their general course is about parallel with the coast. They separate the waters of the Southern arm of the Bay of San Francisco, and those of the Bay of Monte Rey, (the Rio San Buenevantura,) from the St. Wakine or Rio San Joaquin, which as we have said, empties into the Northern arm. Trending again to the East, they probably intersect with the California Mountains, South of the head of the San Joaquin, bounding its valley on the West and South, and giving rise, on one side, to the tribuatries which come into it, from those directions, and on the other, to the Eastern tributaries of the Rio San Buenevantara, and to some other smaller streams, which rise South of this, and empty into the Ocean.