CHAPTEK III. 



SANTA CLARA VAILEY. 



Position and boundaries op the santa clara valley. — Structure of the hills bounding the sides op the valley. — Subsoil 



AND strata op THE VAILEY. — ARTESIAN WELLS IN. — DePTH OP THE QUATERNARY CLAYS. — ClIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. — FhDIT 



ORCHARDS, — Cereals. — Productiveness op the soil. — Cinnabar mine op new almaden. — Position op the mine, village, anp 

 HACIENDA. — Geological relations op the orb. — Method op minino. — Quantity extracted. — Operations at the hacienda 

 FURNACES. — Mode op charging. — Unhealthiness op the operation arising ohieply from unskilpulness in the conducting op 

 the processes. — Recommendations for remedying it. — Value of the shipments. — Pajaro valley. — Extent and character. — 

 Geological structure. — San Bonito eivek, terraces upon. 



The Santa Clara, or, as it is sometimes called, the San Jose valley, is of a triangular shape, 

 with its base to the north^ where it is intruded upon by the Bay of San Francisco. Its length 

 is about thirty miles, when it narrows by the convergence of the two ranges of the Coast 

 mountains — the Monte Diablo and the Santa Cruz mountains. At the south it is closed by the 

 Llomas Muertas, a small chain given oiF from the Gavilan range. Properly describing the 

 valley, would be to include the whole Bay of San Francisco as occupying all the lower level, 

 and its southern borders would be the hills of Alameda and Contra Costa on the one hand, and 

 the rugged peninsular of San Francisco county on the other. These latter, including the 

 Monte BrunOj are chiefly trappean and serpentine rocks, with diallage rock, talcose slates, and 

 occasionally masses of hornblende schist, and average from 1,500 to 2,000 feet in height. 



The range on the east side of the valley is the continuation southward of the trappean and 

 laval uplifts on the west side of the granite of Monte Diablo, and is more elevated than 

 the Santa Cruz range. The sedimentary rocks, uplifted by the plutonic action, are con- 

 glomerate grits and sandstones, with a very high dip to the west, and which extend from the 

 shores of the Bay of Suisun, the Straits of Carquinez, and the eastern portion of the Bay of 

 San Pablo. The sandstones are in places cut through and injected with lava and quartz veins, 

 and in places merely hardened and rendered metamorphic. 



The valley bottom is composed of beds of heavy alluvial clay, of considerable depth, which 

 repose on the beds of sandstone just adverted to, which, dipping west under the valley, rise 

 again on the opposite side of the Santa Cruz mountains. The oak which grows on the plain is 

 of a dwarfed character, and only suitable for fire-wood or fencing. But little timber is found on 

 the Santa Cruz hills. 



The lowest portions of the valley below the towns of San Jose and Alviso, embracing the 

 head of the bay, is a continuous mud flat, which reaches round the east margin of the bay into 

 Alameda county. It grows only salt marsh grass and rush in its wet condition, but when 

 drained and cultivated, as has been done on the east side of the bay, it is found to be one of the 

 most productive of soils. Miles of the bay shore might be enclosed, drained and reclaimed, and 

 be made suitable for any crop, for the presence of rush and salt grass is an indication of a soil 

 well charged with vegetable matter. 



The subsoil and underlying strata of the valley are well supplied with water. Artesian 



