HESOUPiCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



CHOROGRAPHY. 



§ 1. General Remarks. — California has a peculiar cho- 

 rography. No other country comprises within so small a 

 space, such various, so many, and such strongly-marked cho- 

 rographical divisions. Mountains the most steep, barren, and 

 rugged; valleys the most fertile and beautiful; deserts the 

 most sterile; spacious bays, magnificent rivers, imparalleled 

 waterfalls, picturesque lakes, extensive marshes, broad prairies, 

 and dense forests — all these are hers. 



In general shape, California is a long parallelogram, extend- 

 ing from latitude 32° 45' to 42° north, seven hundred miles in 

 length by one hundred and eighty in breadth, the course of 

 the longitudinal axis being north-northwest by south-southeast. 

 The first topographical division of the state may be into the 

 Coast and Interior districts, separated from each other by the 

 main ridge of the Coast Mountains, which runs the whole 

 length of the state, nearly parallel with the ocean, and about 

 fifty miles from it. The Coast district may be subdivided into 

 the Coast 3fou7itains and the Coast Valleys. The Interior 

 district may be subdivided into the Sierra Nevada, the Sac- 

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