CHOEOGKAPHT. 



Pajaro valleys are separated from each other by hills not more 



than two hundred and fifty feet high ; and the valleys of the 



Pajaro and the Salinas open into each other. So' also the 



divide between San Ramon and Amador valleys is so low as 



to be scarcely noticed by the traveller ; and Amador valley is 



connected, by a level road through a canon, with Suilol valley, 



and that by another canon with the plain at San Jose Mission! 



N'orth of San Francisco Bay, the valleys of Suisan, Yaca, Pu- 



tah, and Cache Creek, he eastward from Xapa valley. The 



vaHey at the head of Putah Creek is sometimes called Berre- 



yesa vaUey ; and that at the head of Cache Creek, Clear Lake 



valley. Xorth of Ptussian Pdver there is little level land, and 



that httle is found in Eel River valley, about the shores of 



Humboldt Bay, and about Crescent City. 



§ 4. Coast Hivers.— The rivers of the Coast Mountains have 

 necessarily but a short course. Those south of the bay of San 

 Francisco are the San Lorenzo, Pajaro, SaHnas, Cuyama, Santa 

 Inez, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Santa Ana, Santa 

 Margarita, San Luis Rey, San Diegnito, and San Diego. Some 

 of these are large streams m wet winters ; but, in the drought 

 of autumn, all those south of the Salinas are swallowed up in 

 the sands before reaching the ocean. Most of them are con- 

 stant streams to within ten or fifteen miles of their mouths. 

 The Santa Ana, the largest river on the southern coast, rises 

 in Mo ant San Bernardino, and is in its meanderiugs nearly one 

 hundred miles long, yet only in very wet seasons, once in six 

 or eight years, succeeds in getting to, the sea. The San Gabriel 

 River sinks before reaching Monte, in Los Angeles county, 

 and, after passing three miles under ground, rises again. The 

 intervening space, where there is no river, is very moist, sandy 

 ground, through which the water spreads and soaks. 



W. H. Emory, in his report as member of the Mexican 

 Boundary Commission, writes thus : 



"The point at which water ceases to flow is quite variable ; 

 Its more usual upward limit being marked at or near the pas- 

 sage of the stream from the first rocky ranges into the tertiary 



