CALIFORNIA. 39 



was the narrow field which lay immediately open 

 to our researches. 



The hills on the northern side of tiie harbour 

 are composed of flinty slate. The hill opposite to 

 them on the southern side, and on which the fort 

 lies, is of serpentine. On going along the strand, 

 towards the south, to the Punta delosLobos, the ser- 

 pentine ceases, and you meet several almost per- 

 pendicular strata of flinty slate, which rest against 

 coarse-grained sandstone, veined with calc-spar ; 

 and this sandstone, of which the more southern 

 hills to the Punta de los Lobos consist, seems to be 

 the kind of rock that lies the lowest. Quicksand 

 lies in many places at a considerable height over 

 the stone, and in many places new sandstone has 

 been formed. 



The environs of San Francisco, in the northern 

 hemisphere, are much poorer in natural produc- 

 tions than the coast of Chili, under the same lati- 

 tude, in the southern. In the spring, when winter 

 has afforded the earth some moisture, the hills and 

 valleys are indeed adorned with brilliant iris and 

 other flowers j but the drought soon destroys them. 



The fogs, which the prevailing sea-winds blow 

 over the coast, dissolve in summer over a heated 

 and parched soil, and the country exhibits in 

 autumn only the prospect of bare scorched tracts, 

 alternating with poor stunted bushes, and in places, 

 with dazzling wastes of drift sand. Dark pine 



D 4 



