194 GITTBEBOOK OF THE WESTEEl^ TJKITED STATES. 



railroad again at Truckee. The rocks in the canyon walls are Tertiary 

 lavas, mainly andesites, and for some distance the supposedly Cre- 

 taceous granite, or a related rock, appears beneath these lavas along 

 the river gorge. It is not always possible at a distance to distinguish 

 between these two classes of rocks. 



A few miles beyond Verdi the train passes a post marking the Cali- 

 fornia-Nevada State hue, and about half a mile beyond it is a sign- 



g marked Calvada, a name 



Calvada, CaL derived from those of the two States, This place is m 

 Elevation 5,0 n feet. ^ southward strctch of the canyon, so that the State 



line is crossed at a slight angle only a short distance 

 west of the longitude of Verdi. 



+ 



California, known as the Golden State, is next to the largest State 

 in the Union. It is 780 miles in length and about 250 miles in average 



width, and has a total area of 156,092 square miles, 

 CaUfornia. being nearly equal in size to New England, New York, 



and Pennsylvania combined. The population of Cali- 

 fornia in 1910 was 2,377,549, or about one-tenth that of the Eastern 

 States named. The area covered by public-land surveys is 123,910 

 square miles, or nearly 80 per cent of the State, and 21 per cent of the 

 State was unappropriated and unreserved July 1, 1914. 



Along the State's 1,000 miles of bold coast line there are compara- 

 tively few indentations. The bays of San Diego and San Francisco are 

 excellent harbors, but they are exceptional. 



The climate of California varies greatly from place to place. Along 

 the coast in northeiii California it is moist and equable. Around San 

 Francisco Bay a moderate rainfall is confined almost wholly to the 

 winter, and the range in temperature is comparatively small. In 

 parts of southern California typical desert conditions prevail. The 

 great interior valley is characterized by moderate to scant winter rain- 

 fall and hot, dry summers. Snow rarely fulls except on the high moun- 

 tains, where — as, for example, in the Sierra Nevada — so much of it 

 may accumidate as to interfere with railway traffic. 



Forests cover 22 per cent of the State's area and have been esti- 

 mated to contain 200,000 million feet' of timber. They are notable 

 for the large size of their trees, especially for the huge dimensions 

 attained by two species of redwood— .Sequoia wasUngtoniana (or 

 gigantea), the well-known ''big tree'' of the Sierra Nevada, and 

 Seg^uoia sempervirens, the ^^big tree'' of the Coast Ranges. Some of 

 these giant trees fortunately have been preserved by the Government 

 or through private generosity against the attacks of the lumberman. 



The 21 national forests in California have a total net area of 

 40,600 square miles, or about one-fom^th of the State's area. The 

 national parks in the State are Yosemite (1,124 square miles), Sequoia 



