AGRICULTURE. 213 



body of forest in the low land of its basin. The pasturage is 

 good, but the area of tillable soil is scanty. 



Passing by the Golden Gate in our northward course, we 

 find that the next noteworthy stream entering the ocean is 

 Russian River, which has a main valley forty miles long and 

 about three miles wide, much of it very fertile. It has also a 

 number of small tributary valleys, including those of Green, 

 Dry, Santa Rosa, Mark West, Knight's, Spring, Redwood, and 

 Potter Creeks. 



Walhalla, Navarro, Eel, and Mad Rivers, are in the redwood 

 region, and those portions of their basins within twenty miles 

 of the ocean are covered with dense forests of the Coast Se- 

 quoia, which is almost ineradicable ; and tillage is possible, or 

 at least profitable, only in places that happen to be free from 

 those trees. 



The Klamath rises in Oregon, and has a considerable part 

 of its basin, including much fertile land, in California. Nearly 

 all of its tillable soil is 2,000 feet or more above the level 

 of the sea, and is exposed to severe winter and frequent frosts 

 in spring and fall. 



152. San Francisco JBasin. "The San Francisco Basin, 

 lying west of the Diablo Divide and finding its outlet to the 

 sea at the Golden Gate, is the richest part of the State. It 

 extends from Calistoga to Gilroy, a distance of 1 20 miles from 

 north to south, and is about twenty-five miles wide. Going 

 southward from San Francisco, on the eastern side of the 

 Gabilan Ridge, we pass San Andreas, Raymundo, and Red- 

 wood Valleys, opening into the San Mateo plain, bounded on 

 the east by San Francisco Bay. These little valleys are well 

 wooded, have good soil, and beautiful scenery ; and the country 

 below them is covered with the country residences of the rich 

 men of San Francisco. 



Santa Clara Valley, about thirty miles long, and ten miles 

 wide at its mouth, is the richest and largest of the valleys in 

 the San Francisco Basin. Its proximity to the metropolis, its 



