8 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 



through the main spurs, the valley gradually widens, becoming in its course a smooth, broad 



bottom, extending to the margin of the bay, and unites with the bottom lands of the lower 



Salinas. 



The most prominent of the several valleys is that of the Eio Salinas. This valley, at its 



mouth, has a width of about nine miles, and extends sixty miles inland, between the Salinas 



and the Gavilan mountains. The lower portions of this valley are decidedly of a prairie 



or plain character, and are thus styled. They are quite like the lands along the lower Pajaro, 



flat and monotonous. Ascending the stream, the valley narrows, and losing its continuity, 



breaks up into tributary or lateral valleys. Of the lateral valleys, those which came under our 



observation are the Estrella, Santa Margarita, Einconada, and San Jose. The Estrella heads 



to the east of the San Jose ridge, and is separated from the Tulare valley by a district of low, 



broken, and bold hills, the terminal spurs of the Monte Diablo and Gavilan masses. This 



valley has an average width of over eight miles, and unites with the Salinas at San Miguel, 



having a meandering course of forty miles. The Santa Margarita and Einconada are lateral 



valleys, uniting with the Salinas on its left bank. These valleys are somewhat basin-shaped, 



and receive the drainage from the eastern face of the Santa Lucia range for a space of twelve miles, 



and all uniting in these basins, flow off easterly to the bed of the Salinas. 



San Jose is above and to the southeast of Santa Margarita, and may be called the head 

 valley of the Salinas. It partakes, also, somewhat of the basin character, but of limited area. 

 Here are gathered the waters of the Santa Lucia and San Jose mountains, the sources of the 

 Salinas, forming a single stream, which, breaking through the rim of the basin, flows off through 

 a tortuous canon, assuming in its progress all the different phases of valley features, which 

 finally resolve themselves into those of the plain below. Beyond San Jose, and separated from 

 it by twenty-three miles of rough country, transverse divides, stretching between the two longi- 

 tudinal ridges, lies the Cuyama plain, on the prolongation of the axis of the San Jose and Santa 

 Margarita valleys. This plain is about forty-five miles long, and has an average width of two 

 miles. It heads near the Santa Emelia mountain, and slopes off to the northwest, being drained 

 by the Eio Santa Maria, which meanders through its length, and reaching a barrier at its 

 northern end turns abruptly oceanward, and breaks through the Santa Lucia ridge by a narrow 

 and rough caiion. The head of the Estrella valley lies immediately on the east of the lower 

 portion of this plain, and is separated from it by a low divide. 



Still further to the east is found another remarkable feature, the Estero, a broad, smooth 

 plain, destitute of timber and shrubbery, cut off from the Estrella and Cuyama, and also from 

 the Tulare valleys, by low ridges. From a distance, this plain had the appearance of a basin, 

 having a broad and shallow lagoon near its centre, whose waters were evaporated during the 

 dry season, but, nevertheless, it has a drainage towards the Tulare valley. 



Crossing from Santa Margarita to San Luis Obispo, we enter upon the plain of the mission, 

 extendino- from the base of the ridge to a low range of sandstone hills and bluffs, 

 separating it from the' beach, through which the waters of this plain flow off by a narrow 

 valley to the ocean, at the port of San Luis. This plain was smooth and meadow-like, 

 but of limited extent. Between the plain of San Luis Obispo and the valley of Santa Inez 

 are found several minor valleys, whose streams break out from the San Lucia mountains 

 and flow directly to the ocean. Of these, the most important is the Guadalupe Largo, a 

 l^lain which stretches from the base of the ridge, in delta form, to the beach, and contains 

 about eighty square miles. The Santa Inez valley beads in the angle embraced by the 

 Santa Inez and San Eafael mountains, and is drained by a stream which trends off in a 



