HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



385 



short of what the reality would appear to you were 

 you here. Our country is a continued succession of 

 mighty mountain ranges, perpetually snow-capped, 

 and peopled with the grisly bear, between which high 

 and lofty mountains are deep, beautiful, fertile and 

 luxuriant valleys, which have no superiors and few 

 parallels in America, either for richness of soil or beauty 

 of landscape. Wheat, barley, oats, &c., grow here 

 finer than in any State in the Union. The grains are 

 generally produced without irrigation ; but with irri 

 gation, you can have a succession of two or three 

 crops a year. Our coldest weather does not exceed 

 that of New Orleans, never seeing more than a slight 

 white frost, while for six months of the year you can 

 see from where you stand, at any time, the terrible 

 snow storm raging on the mountain tops, while the 

 landscape at your feet is covered with Flora's most 

 lovely variety of flowers. Our valleys are mostly 

 prairies, with timber enough for fires and fences, but 

 none for lumber. The latter is to be had in the moun 

 tains. The gigantic trees down in Maine are mere 

 bushes to our pines, redwood, hemlock, spruce, and 

 firs, from three hundred to five hundred feet in 

 height, and twenty, nay, up to thirty feet in diameter 

 >as straight and tapering from the root to the top 

 (the latter only as big as your finger) as if they had 

 been turned in a lathe by a skilful mechanic. Such 

 forests, both as to timber and extent ! You cannot 

 realize the idea I wish to convey. I once helped to 

 fell some of these gigantic trees, with my own hands, 

 to make fire to keep from freezing, while in a terrible 

 storm of fourteen days and nights, exposed to all its 

 furies, without any covering but the skies. When we 

 at last reached the Sacramento valley, the contrast 

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