150 KESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



entire State of New York. J. D. Whitney, in the first volume 

 of the State Geological Survey Report, says : " It is believed 

 there are few, if any, points on the earth's surface from which so 

 extensive an area can be seen as from Monte Diablo." San 

 Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton, Vallejo, Antioch, Redwood 

 City, the Farallones, and the Marysville Buttes, are all dis- 

 tinguishable. 



A ride of sixteen miles from Martinez, half of it on horseback, 

 or of twenty-six miles from Oakland, including ten on horse- 

 back, enables a person to reach the summit. Accommoda- 

 tions have been provided on the mountain for visitors. 



.Mount Shasta at the north, and Mount San bernardino at 

 the south, occupy positions of relative prominence somewhat 

 like that of Diablo in the middle of the State, towering far 

 above the surrounding country. Shasta is clothed with snow 

 for a distance of a vertical mile from the summit most of the 

 year, and is a sublime feature of the landscape ; it is visible in 

 every direction to a distance of a hundred miles. 



The State Geological Survey discovered, in the summer of 

 1864, that in the Sierra Nevada, between the latitudes of 35 

 and 38, an area of 300 square miles or more has an elevation 

 exceeding 8,000 feet, with 100 peaks that rise above 10,000 feet, 

 and one that reaches 14,900 feet, the highest point in the Unit- 

 ed States, and 500 feet higher than Mount Shasta. The lat- 

 ter makes a more imposing appearance, because it rises in 

 solitary grandeur 7,000 feet beyond the tops of any mountain 

 within fifty miles of it, whereas, Mount Whitney is surrounded 

 by other peaks of nearly equal elevation, and is not distinguish- 

 able or, at least, is not a striking landmark, from any large 

 town or main line of travel in the State. Switzerland has, for 

 hundreds of years, had the fame of possessing the greatest area 

 of land elevated nearly to the level of perpetual snow, and the 

 largest number of great peaks within the limit of high civili- 

 zation ; but is now surpassed by this Alpine region of California, 

 which reaches from Kern River to Castle Peak, a distance of 

 two hundred miles. 



