72 KESOUKCES OF CALIFOEXIA, 



CHAPTER IV. 



SCENERY. 



§ 52. Introductory. — California has much beautiful scenery. 

 The atmosphere is remarkably clear, giving the eye a wide 

 range. The mountainous character of the state not only pre- 

 vents monotony and secures a rich variety of landscapes, but 

 gives them extent and grandeur. The large rivers, the high 

 snow-peaks and ridges, wide bays, forests of the largest and 

 most graceful evergreens, parks of majestic oaks, natural mead- 

 ows covered in the spring with brilliant grasses and flowers, 

 are all magnificent in their kind. The valleys are mostly bare 

 of timber, with here and there a grove of oaks, and lines 

 of trees and bushes along the water courses. The coast val- 

 leys are very beautiful, and in the course of ten or fifteen 

 years, when ornamented with thorough cultivation, will be as 

 pretty as any places in the world. Sonoma, Napa, Amador, 

 San Ramon, and Sunol valleys may be made as beautiful as 

 any part of the world. 



§ 53. Coast Valleys. — Napa valley, which is now the most 

 beautiful of these valleys, because most thickly settled and 

 most thoroughly cultivated, is thirty miles long, five miles wide 

 at its mouth, gradually growing narrower toward the head. 

 Napa River, a small stream, runs through the whole length 

 of the valley, which is of level land, bounded on both sides by 

 steep mountains, about two thousand feet high. These moun- 

 tains, brown near the foreground and blue in the distance, oak 

 groves, brilliant laurel and madrona, fields of wheat and bar- 

 ley, ploughed fields, good fences, elegant farm-houses, and nu- 

 merous gardens and orchards, go to make up the landscape. 



