38 



CALIFORNIA.* 



A LOW ridge of mountains borders the coast of 

 California, where we saw it, and intercepts the 

 prospect into the interior of the country. It has 

 not a volcanic appearance, t The harbour of San 

 Francisco, in which Burney, (Part I. p. 354.,) with 

 learned criticism, recognises the harbour of Sir 

 Francis Drake, enters through a narrow passage, 

 receives some rivers from the interior, branches out 

 behind the eminences, and forms into a peninsula, 

 the country lying south of the entrance. The 

 Presidio and the Mission of San Francisco lie on this 

 tongue of land, which, with its hills and downs, 



* For accounts of California, see Noticia de la California 

 y de su Conquista, por el P. Miguel Venegas. Madrid, 1775. 

 4to. of which a Natural and Civil History of California, London, 

 1759, {Quccre?) is a translation. 



Diario Historico de los Viages deMar y Tierra hechos al Norte 

 de la California. D. Vicente Vila. Mexico, 1769. Accounts 

 of the American Peninsula California, by a Priest of the Society 

 of Jesus, who has lately resided there many years. Mannheim, 

 1773. And the Voyages of La Pey rouse, Vancouver, and 

 LangsdortF. 



t Near St. Barbara (Si" north latitude) there arises from the 

 coast a still burning volcano, the foot of which is washed by 

 the sea ; and in other places of the peninsula, there are proofs 

 of a volcanic nature. 



