Coasting in Storms. 251 



the shore-line which has been trending to the northwest makes 

 a gentle sweep to the northeastward, with low shores and bold 

 wooded mountains behind. The point is the extremity of a 

 plateau sixty feet high, and rises by several steps in three miles 

 to two hundred and fifteen. It is destitute of timber, but on the 

 higher parts of the plateau the fir trees stretch to the mountains. 

 He doubtless saw the high timbered crest line rising to 2,300 

 feet elevation behind and beyond the point. 



Cabrillo's narrator does not write a word about the exciting 

 experiences of the vessels from the time they left their anchor- 

 age at the Gaviota until the morning after Ferrelo saw point 

 Arena, when he says : "And Monday, on the twenty-sixth of 

 the said month [of February], they were at a point which they 

 called Cabo de Fortunas [cape of Perils] on account of the many 

 dangers which they had experienced in those days, and it is in 

 forty-one degrees." 



If the vessels scudded twenty leagues northwestward from 

 Fort Ross in the short period of daylight they should have 

 reached latitude 39° 30', but if point Arena was what they saw 

 at dark they could not have been up to Fort Ross at daylight, 

 but had made it out at that time. 



Granting, however, that they reached the latitude of 39° 30', 

 and supposing they kept their course, they may next day have 

 seen some distance to the northeast the culminating peak of the 

 Coast range of mountains just north of point Delgoda, where 

 King peak, in latitude 40° 9', rises to a height of 4,265 feet at 

 two and a half miles from the coast line. This is probably too 

 far north, for Ferrelo says : 



" Tuesday, the 27th of the said month, the wind veered to the 

 south-southwest, which held on all day. They ran to the west- 

 northwest with the foresails lowered, for it blew violently. At 

 the approach of night the wind shifted to the west. They ran 

 all night to the south, with but little sail. There was a high 

 sea which broke over them." 



The shore north of point Arena retreats in a long curve to the 

 eastward to the Ussal river, and then takes the old northwest 

 course. 



Before reaching so far north as King jpeak, " one of the 

 great landfalls for this section of the coast to vessels well off 

 shore is Cahto mountain, lying N. 85° E. (magnetic) from cape 

 Vizcaino. It rises to an elevation of 4,076 feet, and should be 



