502 HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 



them are piles of mere broken rocks, while others are 

 covered with grass, shrubbery, and small trees. The 

 plains are sandy and mostly unproductive not, how 

 ever, from any natural barrenness in the soil, but 

 from a deficiency of water. There are but few 

 durable streams in the whole country, and streams of 

 good water are extremely scarce. But in the plains 

 and most of the dry beds of rivers water can be obtained 

 by digging wells only a few feet in depth; and 

 wherever irrigation has been resorted to by means of 

 these wells, the produce of the soil, from its remark 

 able fertility, has abundantly rewarded the labor of the 

 agriculturist. Much of this soil is of volcanic origin, 

 having been washed from the mountains by the action 

 of heavy rains, and the produce extracted by means 

 of irrigation from these apparently barren and un- 

 prolific sands is something most marvellous. The 

 general aspect of the country on the coast is exceed 

 ingly barren and forbidding, but I have seen no in 

 stance where the soil is properly cultivated that the 

 labor bestowed on it is not well rewarded. The 

 growth of vegetation is exceedingly rapid, and the 

 soil and climate are such as to produce nearly all the 

 tropical fruits in great perfection. But the inhabit 

 ants are disinclined to agriculture, and most of them 

 live indolent and roving lives, subsisting principally 

 upon their herds. Notwithstanding the unfavorable 

 character of the country, it is capable, in the hands 

 of an industrious and agricultural people, of support 

 ing a population much more numerous than the pre 

 sent. In the time of the missions, when very small 

 portions of the soil were cultivated, and even these 

 but rudely, by the Indians, the four districts of San 

 Jose, Santiago, San Antonio, and Todos Santos con- 



