Tour of the Gold-fields 207 



enough to extend their gigantic limbs laterally, 

 instead of forcing their huge trunks in rivalry with 

 the oaks, to get fresh air and sunshine. 



The country from Stockton is a clayey flat, so 

 little of an inclination to the land, that the water 

 appears to lie until evaporated, and the "sloughs" 

 in many places are sluggish and seem to be more 

 water-holes than running streams, until they reach 

 the Calaveras, which is a beautiful creek nearly 

 dry four months of the year, but the other eight 

 giving good water. The meadow-like flats about 

 it look just ready for the plough, though by using 

 that, a sward of good grass would be lost. The 

 country from here becomes very gradually more 

 and more undulating, changing the nature of the 

 soil every few miles. In some places the hills 

 are of clay, and valleys of greyish loam, or red 

 sand thickly mixed in with quartz; in many cases 

 water-worn, but all is so beautiful that were the 

 woods more dense, and the water-courses now so 

 inviting, "never-failing," the farmer would here 

 find his Paradise, and by selecting his land so as 

 to avoid the gravelly sub-soil, which is too abun- 

 dant for richness, and choosing that which has the 

 clay foundation, his plantation might be one of 

 great permanence, for the rains here do not wash 

 ofif much of the soil. 



March 8th. Following up one of the north 

 forks of the Calaveras, we passed through beauti- 



