Doe. No. 9.] 51 



of it a fine field of corn had been raised the previous year, also wheat 

 and barley. The land formerly produced a heavy growth of mustard, 

 but was- reclaimed- from this in part by tillage. The effect of the over 

 flow was to destroy every vestige of former vegetation, and in its place 

 a thick growth of willows had sprung up that were equally impenetra 

 ble with the mustard on the plains. At the time I visited them they 

 had attained a height of about four feet. This immense deposit of sand 

 on the arable land of this part the lower bottom is covered by the obstruc 

 tions on the beach of the coast to the free egress of the waters from 

 the interior during freshets, and until they shall be removed, some of 

 the best lands of this valley will be constantly subjected to this ruinous 

 result in all coming time. 



The amount of land liable to be thus buried beneath this arenaceous 

 deposit is great, and as it comprises a large part of the most valuable 

 property in this section of country, it demands consideration. 



The quantity of arable lands contained within the Salina Plains, is es 

 timated at about seven hundred and eighty square miles, this being com 

 prised in the lower terraces only ; the upper terrace cannot strictly be 

 considered as available for agriculture, but it more properly a grazing 

 country with very few exceptions. The above quantities are divided as 

 follows : the lower terrace or river bottom contains three hundred, twenty 

 miles, and the second terrace about four hundred and sixty, and enjoy ing 

 a climate in its different sections which will be found adapted to the 

 growths of the extremes of temperate zones. 



PAJAEO VALLEY. . 



This valley is situated on the coast, and is bounded on the north and 

 east by the southern part of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and on the south 

 by the low hills forming spur of the Gabilan Range, and which divide 

 it from the Salinas Plains. The valley is about eight miles in length, 

 and about four in breadth on an average, exclusive of the foot hills, or 

 low, table hills, on its west border; the Pajaro River forming the bound 

 ary of the counties Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, has its rise near 

 San Felipe, and flows in a westerly direction through the low hills at the 

 base of the mountains, thence along the northwest border of the valley 

 for about two miles, where crosses the latter within about a quarter of a 

 mile of the town of Watsonville, and reaches the sea at a point south ten 

 degrees west of the latter locality, four miles distant. 



This plain is of comparatively recent formation, and formerly was a 

 well-sheltered bay of the sea ; the sandstone formation in the hills to 

 the north and east are of the same age as that now forming the coast 

 line between it and the town of, Santa Cruz, the fossils of which of pre 

 sent existing species ; the forces that were instrumental in elevating 

 this section have been gradual, as is evinced in the highly disturbed po 

 sition of the sedimentary rocks along the coast for thirty-five miles ; in 

 these localities, it is difficult, in some instances to detect any inclination 

 of the strata whatever, and it is only in the mountain sections that this 

 disturbance becomes markedly manifest ; the uplift of this entire sec 

 tion has taken place since the rocks on which the tertiaries rest assumed 



