CALIFORNIA 



ALIFORNIA, measured diago- 

 nally, is about 750 miles in 

 length ; it extends north and 

 south over ten degrees of lati- 

 tude. It has a mean breadth of 

 about 200 miles, and its whole 

 area is given as 188,981 square 

 miles. The great ranges of mountains, the Sierra 

 Nevadas and the Coast Range, traverse the state north- 

 west and southeast, and between these is the valley of 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin, some 500 miles long and 

 fifty wide. The country east of the Sierra Nevadas is 

 generally level, much of it being sandy and barren. 

 The Coast Range extends along the state near the 

 coast. The northern part of the state is very mountain- 

 ous. In the southern part the climate is semi-tropical 

 in the valleys. 



Game is less abundant than formerly in most parts of 

 the state, but to some extent the great draughts on it 

 have been checked. The principal furred game to be 

 found in California is elk, deer, antelope, grizzly bear, 

 black and brown bear, cougar, lynx, gray or timber- 

 wolf, jack-rabbit and other varieties of rabbit, prairie- 

 wolf or coyote, wolverine, and squirrel. The porcu- 

 pine is also found in this state. 



Elk or wapiti, it is said, still exist in the lower part 

 of the state, but are few in number. There are believed 

 to be a few remaining about the head waters of Eel, 



