112 NORTH AMERICA 



Luis, are broad enough to permit of the development cf 

 rolling, sandy, or gravelly wastes at the bottom, when 

 artemisias and other sage-brush plants regularly recur. 

 Agriculture is not altogether excluded from those tracts, 

 if means be taken of preventing the surface evaporation 

 of the soil, and of thoroughly utilizing the ground 

 moisture : on these principles is based the system called 

 ' dry farming ' or dry-land farming, which has succeeded 

 in wresting good maize crops out of what looked like 

 mere sand wastes. Above the general level of the 

 plateau rise a few mountain ranges which are able to 

 catch the rain and the snow, and consequently are as 

 a ruL well wooded. Some of them unexpectedly reveal 

 delightful Alpine corners with prosperous forests of 

 conifers and aspen, luxuriant meadows, marshes, and 

 pastures, in the midst of the general aridity. 



California. If the Great Basin, in respect of its vege- 

 tation, recalls the Algerian plateau, California gives a 

 striking replica of the Mediterranean landscape, and 

 more especially of the Algerian tell. The Californian 

 valley extends from the coast-range to the Sierra Nevada 

 in continuation of the trough that separates the main- 

 land of British Columbia from the coast islands, and is, 

 in turn, continued southward as the Gulf of California. 

 Lying in a hollow, and deprived of most of the moisture 

 of the Pacific winds, it enjoys a moderate rainfall during 

 the winter, and a pleasant warm temperate climate. 

 The floor of the valley, which is, in places, naturally 

 well watered, displays a park landscape in which the 

 hard-leaf and evergreen vegetation is prominent. Dry 

 grass steppes claim a large portion of its area, but ever- 

 green oaks with small leathery leaves, the Californian 

 laurel, cypresses, and a large number of evergreen shrubs, 

 correspond to the similar plants of the Mediterranean. 



