BOTANY OF SANTA CRUZ ISLAND. 381 



mensurate with the breadth of the gorge itself. With the 

 exception of these, the whole coast of the island rises almost 

 or quite perpendicularly from the water, the first terrace of 

 comparatively horizontal ground setting in at the height of 

 from twenty-five to five hundred feet above the tide. This 

 lowest succession of slopes forms a considerable part of 

 the best grazing land of Santa Cruz . It is an open, roll- 

 ing district, extending back for a half mile or more, 

 evely where intersected by the narrow canons mentioned, 

 covered with fine grass, dotted with clumps of scrub oak 

 {Qaercus dumosa), and some patches of manzanita 

 (Ardostaphylos) ^ with here and there a grove of the beautiful 

 fern-leaved Lyonothamnus. Back of this terrace the land 

 rises more abruptly, breaking into rocky shelves and deep 

 gorges, and the vegetation becomes more arboreal. Here 

 are dense forests of a small pine, identical with that which is 

 found on Cedros and Guadalupe, and which is not hereto- 

 fore reported from other islands of the Santa Barbara group; 

 clumps of a large-fruited evergreen cherry-tree allied to, but 

 distinct from Prunus ilicifolla of the continental Coast 

 Range; impenetrable thickets of manzanita, with here and 

 there a group of oaks, Q. agrifolia and Q. cJirysolepis. 



From the summit of this northern acclivity one looks dowu, 

 not, as one might expect, to the southern shore of the island, 

 but into a deep and fertile valley of considerable extent. 

 Up and down this stretch of valley are fields and vineyards, 

 and, in the midst of all, an assemblage of cottages and 

 barns, the principal one of the four or five ranches which 

 have been established by the owner of the island, and are 

 occupied by superintendents and laborers. This valley, 

 forming, as it does, a great depression in the middle of the 

 island, will, if the island be of volcanic origin, pass for the 

 extinct crater which it looks as if it might be. Down the 

 western half of the depression courses a stream which is 

 flowing, at intervals, at least, during even the dry season of 

 the year, and which finds its outlet into Prisoners' Harbor 



