STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 343 



number of square miles eight thousand feet above tide water. While 

 Switzerland Gas only four peaks above thirteen thousand feet, and but 

 one hundred and fifty square miles above eight thousand feet, the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains have one hundred peaks above ten thousand feet, and 

 three hundred square miles above eight thousand feet. There are sev- 

 eral peaks, according to Professor Brewer's estimate, above twelve thou- 

 sand feet. Mount Shasta, which towers in solitary grandeur seven 

 thousand feet above everything in its vicinity, and shows three States, 

 is no longer the highest peak, being but fourteen thousand four hundred 

 and forty feet. In Kern County, opposite Tulare Lake, is a peak sup- 

 posed by Professor Brewer to be the highest in the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains. Mr. King, of the Brewer surveying party, reached an 

 elevation of fourteen thousand seven hundred and thirty feet, as high 

 as he was able to get, from three hundred to four hundred feet was sup- 

 posed to be above him. This peak not only dethrones Mount Shasta, 

 but also the highest Alpine region of the Alps. 



The Sierra Nevada Mountains, which flank on the east the length of 

 California, seven hundred miles, overlooking these splendid valleys, is 

 one of the romantic features of the State, snow-capped in the winter, 

 and in the summer and fall wearing a sombre blue, whieh gives them an 

 indescribable grandeur and leads one's thoughts to an infinite power, 

 the Creator of the heavens and the earth. 



