W. P. Blake on the Gold Region of California and Oregon. 73 
of the State and a portion of Oregon, reaching the coast between 
ape Mendocino and the Umpqua river in lat. 43° 45’.* The 
placers are therefore no longer confined to the State of California 
but extend into Oregon, not only to the Umpqua river but beyond 
it, throughout both Oregon and Washington ‘Territories to the 
parallel of 49°.4 Of this northern portion of the gold region 
there is however but little known, and the latitude of the Ump- 
qna river may be regarded as the northern limit of general min- 
ing operations for the present. On the south, the limits of the 
eld have been extended nearly to the Tejon pass at the head of 
the Tulare valley in lat. 35.0. This poiut is about forty miles 
south of Kern river where, occording to the recent intelligence — 
the placers are rich and are exciting considerable attention, This 
tiver rises in Walker’s pass (lat. 35° 39’), and flows westward 
over a broad area of granitic rocks to the Tulare valley, where it 
empties into the most southern of the Tulare lakes. South of 
the head-waters of this river the crest of the Sierra Nevada grad- 
ually deflects to the west and the breadth of the exposure of 
granitic rocks decreases, until at the Tejon, the slopes of the Great 
sin and the Tulare valley are only thirteen miles distant. 
The auriferous slates, (taleose slates,)are not found in the section 
at the Tejon pass, and this GAPE considered as the southern 
limit of the Sierra Nevada gold field. 
It is more difficult to determine even approximately the eastern 
and western boundaries of the auriferous area. ‘The elevated 
tions of the Sierra having been but slightly explored, its east- 
ern limits are not yet defined. Its western margin along the Sac- 
f the Sierra Nevada. The average breadth of the field for its 
0 
“ntire length may be said to be not less than fifty miles. 
rhe interesting to observe in this connection that when Prof. J. D. Dana, the ge- 
is Rx ‘ 
log) of the U.S. E rapidly over, the section of country in 1841, 
he noticed res 
° o in 
parts of the range of country between the Umpqua and Sacramento,"— Am. 
li, 262. oe 
's statement is made on the me (verbal communication) of Dr. John 
"ans, geologist of Oregon and Washington Territories. 
Stooww Seats, Vol. XX, No. 58.—July, 1855. 10 
ia 
bon. bboy 
