The Snowy Cajjc. 247 



quarters of a mile, is very irregular in outline, and broken into 

 four or five bold granitic peaks, of .which the highest is 340 feet 

 above the sea, and is visible from a ship's deck at about twenty 

 miles. 



Drake, in 1579, anchored under the eastern point of point 

 Reyes head, in the northernmost part of the gulf of the Faral- 

 lones, and named the two groups of islets. From the southeast 

 Farallon his vessel obtained a large supjjly of fresh sea-lion 

 meat. Vizcaino does not mention the groups of the Farallones 

 in his published narrative, but they are laid down on his plans. 



The great storm which Cabrillo's vessels had encountered had 

 covered the mountains of the peninsula of San Francisco with 

 snow, and Ferrelo, in describing the coast from the great gulf 

 southward, says : "All the coast they passed by this day is very 

 bold, and there is a great swell of the sea, and the land is very 

 lofty ; there are mountains which rise to the sky, and the sea 

 beats upon them. While sailing near the land it appears as if 

 they would fall upon the ships ; they are covered with snow to 

 the summit. The}^ gave them the name of las Sierras Nevadas, 

 and the principal one forms a cape which projects into the sea, 

 which they named el Cabo de Nieve. The coast runs north- 

 northwest and south-southeast. It does not appear that" Indians 

 inhabit this coast. This Cabo de Nieve is in thirty and eight 

 degrees and two-thirds, and always, when the wind blew from 

 the northwest, it made the weather fair and clear." 



Cabrillo says ''they were seeking for a port," and hence the 

 minuteness of the foregoing narration. 



This snowy cape and the erroneous latitude, 38° 40', has given 

 rise to much speculation as to its identification. The descrip- 

 tion of the navigators, although somewhat exaggerated, is sufii- 

 ciently good to satisfy one who is acquainted with the charac- 

 teristics of this high backbone of the jDcninsula and with the 

 occasional high cliff's ; and is quite satisfactory to those who have 

 encountered heavy snow-storms in the Coast range of mountains. 

 In some very heavy southeasters, such as that we experienced 

 in the Santa Lucia range early in January, 1880, the cold is 

 quite severe, reaching 17° Fahrenheit, the force of the wind ter- 

 rific, and the depth of the snow two or three feet. 



This Cabo de Nieve, or snowy cape, is the massive western 

 spur or buttress of the high mountains of this part of the penin- 

 sula of San Francisco and rises abruptly and immediately be- 



