VALLADOLID 



VALLEY 



miles northwest of Madrid, in the midst of a 

 fertile plain. This city possesses historic and 

 literary interest, for Columbus died and Philip 

 II was born there, and from 1603 to 1606 it was 

 the home of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. 



Valladolid has many attractive plazas, parks, 

 arcades, cathedrals and other structures, rich in 

 ornamentation and picturesque courts and fa- 

 cades. Its thirteenth-century Church of San 

 Pablo and the building containing the city 

 .offices rank among the world's finest examples 

 of Gothic architecture. Its educational institu- 

 tions include one of the oldest universities in 

 Europe. The leading articles of manufacture 

 include chocolate, flour, gloves, pottery, iron 

 and metal goods, silks and woolens. Valla- 

 dolid was the capital of Castile and Leon dur- 

 ing the latter part of the Middle Ages, and 

 after the union of Castile and Aragon it was 

 the capital of Spain until superseded by Mad* 

 rid, in 1560. Population in 1910, 71,066. 



VALLADOLID, MEXICO. See MORELIA. 



VALLEJO, valla' ho, CAL., a city in Solano 

 County, in the western part of the state, on 

 San Pablo Bay, twenty-eight miles north of San 

 Francisco. Electric lines extend north from the 

 city. Vallejo is the outlet for one of the finest 

 fruit sections in the state, extensive shipping 

 being carried on through its excellent harbor, 

 which will accommodate the largest seagoing 

 vessels. The city is an important wheat mar- 

 ket, and its flour mills, which employ about 300 

 people, are the largest industrial plants. Tan- 

 neries, dairies and fruit and fish canneries are 

 other noteworthy establishments, and in the 

 vicinity is one of the richest quicksilver mines 

 in the United States. At Mare Island, opposite 

 the city, are located the largest United States 

 navy yards on the Pacific coast (see MARE 

 ISLAND). 



The prominent buildings are the city hall, 

 public library, Saint Vincent's Academy and the 

 Good Templars' Home, a refuge for orphans. 

 Vallejo, when founded in 1850, was intended 

 for the capital of the state ; sessions of the legis- 

 lature were held here in 1851, 1852 and 1853. It 

 was chartered as a city in 1866, and in 1911 it 

 adopted the commission form of government. 

 In 1910 the population was 11,340; this had in- 

 creased to 13,461 by 1916 (Federal estimate). 



VALLEY, low lands between mountains, hills 

 or bluffs. The sides of the valley are known as 

 the slopes, and the bottom is called the floor. 

 Valleys are formed by folding of the earth's 

 crust and by erosion. Those formed by folding 

 are usually between mountain ranges, and for 



this reason are designated by geographers as 

 intcrmontanc valleys. The most noted exam- 

 ple of this variety in America is the great val- 

 ley between the Cascade and Sierra mountains 

 on the east and the Coast Ranges on the \ 

 extending 

 through the 

 states of Wash- 

 ington, Oregon 

 and California. 



Valleys running 

 parallel with the 

 mountain ranges 

 are called longi- 

 tudinal valleys; 

 those running 

 across the ranges 

 are transverse 

 valleys. The 

 latter may be 

 caused by breaks 

 in the folds form- 

 ing the mountain 

 ranges, but they 

 are more often 

 due to 



NARROW VALLEY 

 Such a valley, with steep 

 erosion sides, as shown in the illus- 

 tration, is also known as a 

 They are usually gorge. Geographers call it a 

 narrow, with transverse valley. 



steep slopes, and the floor is only wide enough 

 to contain the river which flows in it. 



When of high altitude transverse valleys are 

 called passes; when low they are called water 

 gaps. Good examples of the latter are the 

 Delaware Water Gap on the Delaware River, 

 the gorge in the Highlands of the Hudson and 

 the channel of the lower Saguenay River in 

 Quebec. Mountain passes have always been of 

 great importance as highways. Among the 

 most noted passes are the Khyber, near Kabul 

 in the Himalayas; the Mont Cenis, Simplon 

 and Saint Bernard in the. Alps ; the Marshall 

 and Hagerman in Colorado, and the Argentine 

 in the Andes. 



Valleys formed by erosion are usually narrow 

 and steep in the upper part of the river's course, 

 and broad, with more gentle slopes, in the lower 

 part of the course. Here the floor of the val- 

 ley may be broad and level, affording large 

 areas of fertile soil for tillage. In arid regions 

 valleys by erosion are narrow and steep because 

 the stream cuts its channel into the rock more 

 rapidly than the slopes disintegrate by weather- 

 ing. Very narrow valleys of this sort are called 

 canyons. The most noted examples of canyons 

 are the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, in 

 Arizona ; the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone 



