236 LANDSCAPE SCENES, 



The hills, however, arc unfit for cultivation to any great extent, owing 

 to their common sterility as well as the abundance of rock in many parts ; 

 yet they miglit serve a good purpose for grazing lands. 



The pre\'ailing rock is said to be sandstone, limestone, mica slate, trap, 

 and basalt ; the minerals, copper, iron, coal, salt, and sulphur. 



Game exists in great abundance, among which are included antelope, 

 deer, (black and white-tailed,) elk, bear, and immense quantities of water- 

 fowls ; large herds of wild horses and cattle, also, are not unfrequently 

 met V ith. 



Tiiiber is usually a scarce article, which constitutes one grand fault in 

 the entire section of Eastern California. This evil, however, is partially re- 

 medied by a mild climate, and only a comparatively small amount of wood 

 is required for building,- fencing, and fuel. 



Fruits of all kinds indigenous to the country, particularly grapes, are 

 found in great profusion, and those native only to Uie torrid and temperate 

 isones may also ba successfully cultivated. 



Among the grasses, grains, and vegetables growing spontaneously in 

 some parts, are red-clover and oats, (which atttain a most luxuriant bulk,) 

 flax and onions ; the latter not unfrequently equalling in size the proudest 

 products of the far- farmed gardens of Wethersfield. 



We are now naturally led back to tlie Colorado, and the country lying 

 between it and the Sierra de ios Mimbros range, on the east. This division 

 embraces much choice land in its valleys, but the high grounds and hills 

 present much of the dryness and sterility incident to the grand praries. 



The valley of the Colorado averages from five to fifteen miles broad, for 

 a distance of nearly two hundred miles above its moutli. 



Further on, the passage of the river through high mountains and tierras 

 templadas (table lands) presents an almost continuous gorge of vertical 

 and overhanging rocks, that, closing in upon tlie subfluent stream at a va- 

 ried height of from fifteen to six hundred or even a thousand feet, afford 

 only an occasional diminutive opening to its waters. 



This vast canon is said to extend for five or six hundred miles, interrupt- 

 ing the river with numerous cataracts, cascades and rapids, and opposing 

 to its swift current the sharp fragments of severed rocks thrown from tlie 

 dizzy eminences, as breakers, by which to lash the gurgling waters and 

 depict the more than tempest-tossed foam and maddened fury of old ocean ! 



In some places the impending rocks approach so near to each other from 

 above, a person may almost step across the vast chasm opening to view the 

 foaming river, half obscured in perpendicular distance and dimmed by the 

 eternal shadows of thrice vertical walls. 



This superbly magnificent scene continues nearly the entire extent, from 

 Uie head of the Colorado valley to the boundary between Oregon and Cali- 

 lomia. 



The table lands and mountains on both sides, as a whole, disclose a 

 a dreary prospect. Now, the traveller meets with a wide reach of naked 

 rock paving the surface to the exclusion of grass, shrubs, or tree, — now, a 

 narrow fissure, filled with detritus and earth, sustains a few stunted pines, — 

 now, a spread of hard sun-baked clay refuses root to aught earth-growing, — 

 now, a small space of saline etflorescences obtrudes upon the vision it* 

 Bnowy incrustatioDia, alike jrepuiaive to vegetable life }— ^en, comei a broad 



