ALONG THE SACRAMENTO 51? 



State IS a great depression, called the Valley of Cali- 

 fornia. The northern portion is called again the Sac- 

 ramento Valley; the southern, the Valley of San 

 Joaquin, both named for the streams that water them. 



The inhabitants are a motley set; English, Celts, 

 Spaniards, Mexicans, Indians, and above all the man 

 from the eastern part of the United States, leaving his 

 impress on all, Americanizing all. 



Sutter^s Fort, as already explained, was founded in 

 1839, very near the junction of the Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin valleys, by a Swiss named John A. Sutter. 

 It stood on a small hill, skirted by a creek which falls 

 into the American River near its junction with the 

 Sacramento, and overlooked a vast extent of ditch-en- 

 closed fields, and park stock ranges, broken by groves 

 and belts of timber. The settlement consisted of the 

 Fort and an old adobe house, called the hospital. A 

 garden of eight or ten acres, filled with vegetables and 

 tropical fruits, surrounded the Fort, cattle covered the 

 plains and boats were tied to the wharves. 



Sutter's confirmed grant contained eleven leagues. 



The Fort, so called, was a parallelogram. Its walls 

 were of adobe, its dimensions five hundred by one 

 hundred and fifty feet. It had loop-holes, bastions at 

 the angles, and twelve cannon. 



Inside of the walls were granaries,' warehouses, store- 

 houses, shops, and in the centre of it all the house of 

 the commander, the potentate, Sutter. His house was 

 rough, " Bare rafters and unpanelled walls.'' Many of 

 the rooms were roughly furnished, crude benches and 

 deal tables. Fine China bowls did duty for both cups 

 and plates, and silver spoons were the only luxury 

 which marked the service of the meals. 



