138 HISTORY OP CALIFORXIA. 



ciently frequent in summer to render irrigation quite 

 unnecessary to the perfect maturity of any crop which 

 is suited to the soil and cUmate. 



" There is an extensive ocean current of cold water, 

 "which comes from the northern regions of the Pacific, 

 or, perhaps, from the Arctic, and flows along the 

 coast of California. It comes charged with, and emits 

 in its progress, cold air, which appears in the form of 

 fog when it comes in contact with a higher tempera- 

 ture on the American coast, as the gulf-stream of the 

 Atlantic exhales vapor when it meets, in any part of 

 its progress, a lower temperature. This current has 

 not been surveyed, and, therefore, its source, tempera- 

 ture, velocity, width, and course, have not been accu- 

 rately ascertained. 



*' It is believed, by Lieutenant Maury, on what he 

 considers sufficient evidence — and no higher authority 

 cxin be cited — that tliis current comes from the coasts 

 of China and Japan, flows northwardly to the penin- 

 sula of Kamtschatka, and, making a circuit to the 

 eastward, strikes the American coast in about latitude 

 41° or 42°. It passes thence southwardly, and finally 

 loses itself in the tropics. 



" Below latitude thirty-nine, and west of the foot- 

 hills of the Sierra Nevada, the forests of California 

 are limited to some scattering groves of oak in the 

 valleys and along the borders of the streams, and of 

 red wood on the ridges and in the gorges of the hills 

 — sometimes extending into the plains. Some of the 

 hills are covered with dwarf shrubs, which may be 

 used as fuel. With these exceptions, the whole 

 territory presents a surface without trees or shrub- 

 bery. It is covered, however, with various species 

 of grass, and, for many miles from the coast, with 



