CALIFORNIA 



106S 



CALIFORNIA 



18, 1906, which injured several of the coast 

 towns and led in San Francisco to fires which 

 destroyed much of the business section. In 

 February, 1914, serious floods occurred in Los 

 Angeles and neighboring towns as the result of 

 very heavy rainfall, and property to the 

 amount of millions of dollars was lost. Two 

 months later, on April 30, 1914, Lassen Peak, 

 a volcano in Northern California, long be- 

 lieved extinct, became active, and on May 14 

 it threw out ashes and rocks, with great clouds 

 of smoke and steam. No lives were lost, but 

 some were in very serious danger. Since then 

 from the same peak there have been over a 

 hundred eruptions. 



Oriental Immigration. One of the most 

 difficult problems with which California has 

 had to deal has concerned the immigration 

 of the Chinese. They came in great numbers, 

 and while they were for the most part quiet 

 and peaceable and made excellent servants, 

 they never became naturalized and they worked 

 so cheaply that white laborers could not com- 

 pete with them. Agitation against them be- 

 gan early, and in 1881 a Chinese Exclusion 

 Act (which see) was passed by the Federal 

 government. Since this did not strictly pro- 

 hibit them from entering the state, supple- 

 mentary laws have been necessary since that 

 date. 



The problem of the Japanese arose later and 

 was more difficult of solution. Since the begin- 

 ning of the twentieth century it has been acute. 

 Because of treaty arrangements with Japan 

 the United States has not been able to exclude 

 the Japanese, but Japan has been prevailed 

 upon to restrict the emigration of laborers 

 to the United States. A new phase of the 

 question came up when it became apparent 

 that the Japanese held in their possession much 

 of the fruit-growing land, and the state made 

 repeated efforts to prohibit the acquiring of 

 territory by aliens. Upon the insistence of 

 the Federal government, the law finally passed 

 in May, 1913, did not discriminate against the 

 Japanese, but instead safeguarded treaty rights. 



Recent Expositions. During 1915 eyes were 

 turned toward California from all parts of the 

 world, for early in that year there was opened 

 at San Francisco the great Panama-Pacific 

 International Exposition (which see), the 

 buildings for which had been two years under 

 construction. At the same time there was 

 opened in San Diego the Panama-California 

 Exposition, which concerned itself more with 

 the southern part of the state, and sought by 



its architecture and its exhibits to recall the 

 old mission days. Both of these are described 

 in more detail under their titles. 



Other Items of Interest. The state has 

 examples of every kind of mountain which is 

 to be found on the globe; there are volcanic 

 mountains, folded mountains, and those craggy, 

 precipitous peaks which are the result of a 

 breaking of the earth's crust. Wind and water, 

 too, have done their work, and many of the 

 hills have been eroded to the rounded form. 



In August, 1916, a new national park was 

 created in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Its 

 special claim to interest may be seen in its 

 name the Lassen Volcanic National Park. 



Even over the arid stretches of the Mohave 

 Desert rain falls occasionally, and when it does 

 the effect is marvelous. Everywhere bright- 

 hued flowers spring up, until the desert is liter- 

 ally carpeted with them.- Within a few days, 

 however, they wither and die, and soon all 

 traces of them are lost under the shifting sands. 



San Francisco has the only large and well- 

 sheltered harbor in more than one thousand 

 miles of coast. 



California produces over ninety-five per cent 

 of the English walnuts grown in the United 

 States. The value of the crop in 1915 was 

 about $4,000,000. 



Almost the entire coast of California is bor- 

 dered by a submarine plateau, which extends in 

 some places but ten, in others several hundred 

 miles out into the Pacific. Once this plateau, 

 over which the water is nowhere very deep, was 

 dry land, a part of the North American conti- 

 nent. 



There has been introduced into this state the 

 edible bamboo, the sprouts of which constitute 

 one of the favorite vegetables in China and 

 Japan. The plants thrive remarkably well, and 

 those who have eaten the sprouts pronounce 

 them not inferior to asparagus. 



The largest gold nugget ever found in Cali- 

 fornia weighed 195 pounds and was worth 

 $43,534. O.B. 



Consult Bancroft's History of the Pacific 

 States of North America; Royce's California, in 

 "American Commonwealths Series." 



Related Subjects. More detailed informa- 

 tion about the geography and resources of Cali- 

 fornia may be gained from the following ar- 

 ticles : 



CITIES AND TOWNS 



Alameda Long Beach 



Bakersfleld Los Angeles 



Berkeley Oakland 



Eureka Pasadena 



Fresno Pomona 



