Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/52

CALIFORNIA. regions on its high mountains, and from a copious rainfall to the aridity of the desert, it naturally presents a very wide variation in its flora. The influence of climate upon flora is nowhere more strongly marked than in this State. The tree flora of California, as of the entire western part of the country, is characterized by consisting almost entirely of coniferæ, while broad-leafed trees are very few in number, consisting of oaks, madroña, and a few other species very limited in number and distribution. The trees of all species are of great size. For illustration, see.

Stretching along the Coast ranges from the Oregon line southward nearly to the Bay of San Francisco, and in scattered groves even as far as Santa Cruz, is found the redwood, whose enormous trees form an extremely dense forest, extending to the lower part of Mendocino County. This forest occupies the foggy, wet stretch of land closely bordering the coast. East of this, in the northern Coast ranges, is a mixed forest consisting of red fir and yellow and sugar pines. The coast ranges south of these forests are almost treeless, but are covered with grasses, and often with a variety of thorny bushes, catsclaw, manzanita, scrub oak, etc., which collectively are known as chaparral. Here and there among them are scattered oaks and digger pines. The ranges of southern California, which rise to greater altitudes, are, on their lower slopes, covered with chaparral, while above 5000 feet are open forests of yellow pine, with scattered specimens of sugar and Coulter pine among them. The valleys of southern California contain some chaparral, with a little grass and many cacti and Spanish bayonet, being the vegetation which is peculiar to an arid region.

The great valley of California is, in its northern part, covered with a scattering growth of oaks, while the southern part is devoid of timber of any sort, and is more or less under cultivation. The marshes on the lower courses of the Sacramento are covered with tule reeds. The Sierra Nevada is, on its lower slopes, covered with a thick growth of chaparral, with a few oaks and digger pines, while above an altitude ranging from 3000 feet in the southern part to 1500 feet in the north begins the yellow-pine belt, which is composed mainly of trees of that species, with sugar-pine, incense-cedar, and red fir intermingled. This occupies a strip on the west slope of the range, extending up to an altitude of 8000 or 9000 feet, above which it is succeeded to the timber-line, which ranges from 9000 to 10,000 feet, by trees of more Arctic character—firs, hemlock, and, finally, at the timber-line, by white-barked pine. On the east side of the range the succession is somewhat similar, but the belts are much narrower, owing to the abruptness of the range on this side. The plateau east of the range is a desert, with very little vegetation, and that of low shrubby growth. In the yellow-pine belt, upon the west slope of the Sierra, there occur ten groves of Sequoia Gigantea, the largest and oldest tree on earth, ranging in size up to 33 or 34 feet in diameter, with heights of from 300 to 350 feet. These do not occur in pure growth, but scattered among the yellow pines. Most of the groves are within national forest reserves or national parks, but much of the land, unfortunately, is held in private hands, and the trees are being cut for lumber. . As California extends north and south through nine degrees of latitude, and ranges from arid deserts in the south to humid and forested mountains in the north, and from the lofty Sierras on the east to the sea. it must not only embrace a large variety of animal life, but include several distinct faunas adapted to its varied climates and terrenes, such as those of the coastal valleys and plains; of successive zones of altitude in the mountains; of the sandy southern semi-tropical deserts, etc. Few of its animals are of the same species as those found in the eastern half of the United States. The representatives are all of distinct surface races; but California is closely allied, zoölogically, to the interior basin and Rocky Mountain region. Among the characteristic mammals of the State are the grizzly and black bears; wolves, large and small, and several fur-bearers; puma and lynx; varieties of the white-tailed and black-tailed deer, and in the extreme north the Columbian blacktail. The bison never entered the State; the wapiti did so formerly, but is no longer to be found there. The bighorn wanders in the high Sierra, where also are found the peculiar little beaver-like sewellel, and various picas. Several rodents, such as the golden and Douglas squirrels, are peculiar to these parts of the mountains, while the plains abound in burrowing rodents, among which are large hares that have increased since civilization reduced their enemies, until in the central and southerly parts of the State they have become a decided pest. The coast fauna comprises several representatives of the seal family. The birds of California include many species not known elsewhere. A species of vulture, the California condor, was the most remarkable, but is extinct save in Lower California. The two crested quails of the State are familiar to sportsmen, as also is the large local ground-cuckoo, called road-runner. Another remarkable local bird is the California woodpecker, peculiar in storing great quantities of acorns in holes in the bark of trees for winter consumption. The islands off the coast, especially the Farallones, are well supplied with sea-birds. Among reptiles, two or three species of rattlesnakes are exceedingly numerous in the lower parts of the mountains, and all over the southern region, where also a great variety of lizards exists. The fishes of both the sea and fresh waters are numerous and valuable. Peculiar classes of sea-fish are the rose-fish, smelts, surf-fish, herrings, rock-trout, and various important food-fishes of the cod family. The rivers of the north receive annually vast ‘runs’ of salmon, which are different from the Eastern salmon (see ). Few of these fishes are the same as Atlantic species, but many belong to groups well represented elsewhere. The care and protection of game animals and fish-culture have received much attention.

. A large part of the area is underlain by sedimentary strata of a comparatively recent geological age. Triassic and Jurassic beds predominate in the northern and west-central parts, and Cretaceous and Tertiary beds in the coastal region. Along the Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges volcanic rocks are strongly developed and cover wide areas. The central axes of these two great ranges are formed, however, by ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks which may belong to the Archæan formation. Granite is especially