78 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



about half-way between Wilmington and old San Pedro, and 

 twenty-three miles from Los Angeles. Whether the break- 

 water be a success or not, it is certain that an artificial harbor 

 must be made to accommodate the rich and extensive country 

 north and east of San Pedro. The Los Angeles people claim 

 that, as the Texas and Pacific Railroad will cross the Coast 

 mountains at San Gorgonio Pass, eighty miles east of their 

 town, and the same distance north of San Diego, its main ter- 

 minus must be at New San Pedro. 



50. San Diego. San Diego, which had a population of 

 2,300 in 1870, and has gained several hundred in the last three 

 3'ears, has been made by Congress the western terminus of the 

 Texas and Pacific Railroad, now in progress of construction. 

 The distance by this road from the Pacific to the Gulf of 

 Mexico, at Galveston, is only 1,500 miles, whereas from San 

 Francisco to New York the distance is 3,300 miles. The San 

 Diego people predict that when their road shall be completed, 

 it will be preferred to the middle Pacific for the transportation 

 of freight between Asia and the Atlantic cities, and they argue 

 that their town will be the rival or equal of San Francisco. 

 The harbor of San Diego is excellent, and in many respects un- 

 surpassed ; but the entrance is only twenty-five feet deep at high 

 water, and calms off the coast frequently render it difficult for 

 sailing vessels to enter or leave the harbor for days at a time, 

 whereas, two hundred miles farther north, the trade winds are 

 almost constant. 



The vicinity of San Diego is poor in agricultural resources. 

 The town is in the southwestern corner of a county which is 

 sixty miles from north to south, and one hundred and twenty 

 miles from the ocean to the Colorado, and that vast area has 

 only 5,000 inhabitants, and only 15,000 acres under cultiva- 

 tion, or three acres to the person. The population of the city 

 is 2,300, and 7,000 square miles in the county have only 

 2,700 inhabitants, or less than one person to two square miles. 

 The western third of the county is nearly all rugged moun- 



