CHAPTER I 

 AN INTRODUCTORY PRE-VIEW 



California is a land of scenery none in the world more fas- 

 cinating. Here are the highest and lowest points in the United 

 States: Mount Whitney, rising to 14,501 feet, Death Valley, 

 280 feet below sea level, and Salton Sink, minus 296 feet. 

 Rivers run down hill, as rivers should, and they have cut some 

 of the most stupendous canyons in the world. Other rivers 

 run upside down the gravel and sand on top, the water down 

 below. The hottest places known to civilized man, and regions 

 of perpetual snow, beckon to each other through not very great 

 distances. Off to the right are regions where rain is a curiosity, 

 and away to the left a moisture-laden region, fog-bound, where 

 thrive the Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) , the grandest 

 trees, the only groves of the kind in the world, a relic of the 

 geologic past. Mountain scenery, through and over which 

 railroads and paved highways have been constructed, where it 

 was supposed to be impossible for travelers to pass, greet the 

 visitor by whatever route he enters, and bring him to broad 

 level expanses of prairie on which great farm machines drive 

 long furrows. Athwart the State, cracks or vents in the crust 

 of the earth have been rent through which mountains of molten 

 rock have been poured (these are now cooled and quiet!). 

 Veins formed by cracks in the crust of the earth into which 

 gold from the deep recesses of the interior of the earth have 

 been deposited thread through the rocks. Palms, dates, olives 

 tropical fruits galore thrive down in deep valleys, and pines 

 and cold-loving conifers thrive high on the mountains. Moun- 

 tains have been upheaved and in the lapse of the ages have been 

 worn down to plains; and the plains again have been covered 



