72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



I have not visited any portion of it myself except Copperopolis, which lies 

 near Lat, 38°, and is elevated about l.COO feet above the sea. It is among the 

 more southern and higher mountains that the most peculiar animals exist, and 

 a great deal remains to be. done in collecting them. 'I'he only point at which 

 extensive collections have been made is Ft. Tejon,.just south of Lat. 3.5°, and 

 near the lowest pass in the range.. There is a species of Hare resembling L. 

 glacialis found on the Alpine summits near Lat. 37°, which rise to a height of 

 12.000 to L5,000 feet, but no specimens have been obtained by naturalists. 



The narrow portion of California east of the Southern Sierra belongs in 

 part to the region already described as the " Desert," but Owen's Valley, lying 

 over 4,000 feet above tfle sea, and close to the mountains, may be considered as 

 part of their eastern slope. Too little is known of it to determine its zoologi- 

 cal peculiarities, but there are probably reptiles there (many of them collected 

 by Dr. Horn, U. S. A , and sent to Philadelphia) which are not found elsewhere 

 in California. He states that there is only one small species of fish, probably a 

 Cyprinoid, found in the river. Being a barren region there are probrfbly no 

 higher animals not found elsewhere. Owen's and Mono Lakes are both exceed- 

 ingly salt and nearly destitute of animal life, the larvce of some insects of the 

 Dipterous order being alone known to inhabit them. The latter, however, is 

 singularly enough the breeding resort of one or more species of Gull, which lay 

 large numbers of eggs on the rocky islands. Li the absence of fish, they must 

 live chiefly on the larva mentioned. 



The Southern Sierra are inhabited on their higher portions by several of the 

 animals before mentioned as not found in the coast range south of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay. The number of these, and their range, as well as the peculiar 

 species, remain to be determined. 



VII., Sacramento Valley. 



The Sacramento Valley, lying between Lat. 38° and 40° 30', is about 175 

 miles long and 50 wide, with about the same elevation of its borders as the 

 Tulare, and the river is navigable nearly the whole length of the valley. No 

 collections are known ever to have been made exclusively in this valley, and 

 only five species of fish have been reported as peculiar to its waters, though 

 others will undoubtedly yet be found, besides some which annually visit them 

 for the purpose of spawning. The borders of the river are well wooded with 

 poplars and willows, and so is a large part of the upland v/ith oaks, supplying 

 shelter for many kinds of birds. Reptiles are more scarce than in the more 

 southern regions. It is difficult to determine which should be considered the 

 animals belonging to the valley, on account of the numerous lateral branches 

 of it, and the gradually rising foothills on which many of the species live to 

 various elevations in the mountains. Some of the birds go into the foothills to 

 build, and the rest of the year frequent the moister and more productive river 

 shores. The occasional floods which inundate the lower valley kill most of the 

 small mammals and reptiles, as they seem to have done in the winter of 1861-2, 

 since which time the latter have been scarce near the river. 



