40 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



The island is about twenty-two miles long, from one 

 to four and one-half wide, and contains about fifty- 

 five thousand acres. It is, in reality, a mountain 

 range out at sea, a marine Sierra, eighteen miles south 

 of Point Firmin on the mainland. The island lies 

 nearly east and west. Near the west end it has a 

 decided cut, and doubtless at one time, ages ago, there 

 were two islands; but this is now an isthmus with 

 harbors on each side — that on the southwest being 

 three-quarters of a mile long and three-eighths of a 

 mile wide, and deep at the entrance. In the general 

 centre, the island runs to a height of twenty-one 

 hundred and nine feet — Mount Black Jack. About 

 it are two other mountains — Mounts Banning and 

 Orizaba — which are prominent landmarks from a long 

 distance. 



This great mountain range, for such it is, is cut into 

 innumerable canons, which are in turn subdivided, so 

 that from the summit of Black Jack an extraordinary 

 scene is presented, canons and their laterals reaching 

 away in every direction. 



Near the east end there is a well-defined range of 

 mountains which years ago I named Cabrillo. I gave 

 the peak at the entrance of Catalina Harbor (north) 

 the name of his great pilot, Bartolome Ferrelo,* who 

 discovered and named Mendocino; and a cape on the 

 northwest, the name of Vizcaino, that the worthies 

 who came up into an unknown land in so valorous a 

 manner should not be forgotten here. 



The island practically has no level land, except in 

 the cafions and at their mouths, consisting as it does 

 of mountains cut by cafions. This has resulted in 



* A full account of Ferrelo's expedition is given by John Van Laet. 



