444 VEGETATION. [1841. 



vapors which have risen during the morning, and the ther- 

 mometer falls very rapidly. The nights are almost always 

 cool. During the rainy months, the plains and low grounds 

 are usually enveloped in fogs and mists, and every little 

 arroyo is swollen far beyond its ordinary limits, while the 

 larcre streams roll down a vast flood of waters to the ocean. 



(9.) Among the principal wild animals in California, are 

 the fierce grizzly bear, the antlered elk, the black-tailed deer, 

 the savage panther and puma, the Californian lion, the shy 

 antelope, and the noisy coyote, or prairie wolf. The buffalo 

 is an entire stranger in this quarter. Hares, squirrels, rab- 

 bits, and marmots, are abundant. The streams abound in 

 fine-flavored fish ; and the delicate and luscious salmon are 

 quite plenty. Among the feathered tribes are the eagle, 

 hawk, vulture, crow, pheasant, partridge, goose, duck, peli- 

 can, curlew, crane, turkey, pigeon, and plover. 



M. de Mofras, one of the most learned and scientific travel- 

 lers who have visited this country, insists, that all that part of 

 California lying between the coast and the Sierra Nevada is 

 "of admirable fertility, and perfectly proper for colonization."* 

 Captain Wilkes also informs us, that the fertility of the soil is 

 so great, that eighty bushels of wheat is the average yield, and 

 that sometimes one hundred and twenty bushels — though this 

 is not very common — are obtained.! But these statements must 

 be taken with some degree of reservation. The hills and up- 

 lands afford the finest pasturage ; but they are not calculated 

 to produce anything else except gramineous plants. The 

 elevated plains are covered with immense fields of wild oats 

 and wild mustard, of a most thrifty growth, which often 

 climb up the sides of the mountains to a considerable height. 

 The soil of the low grounds is a rich, dark loam, that be- 

 comes dry like powder in the summer season ; but the winter 

 and spring rains soon convert them into blooming gardens 

 Irrigation wiil be needed all over the territory, in order to 



• Exploration du Tcrritoire fie I'Oregon des Calilbrnies, et de la Mer Ver- 

 meille, Tom. IF p 10 

 fNuiTative of the Exploring Expedition Vol V pp. !.>S, 159. 



