2 West Ainerica7i Scientist. 



and that barely commensurate with the breadth of the canon it- 

 self. With these exceptions, the whole coast of the island rises 

 almost or quite perpendicularly from the water, the first terrace of 

 comparatively horizontal ground setting in at the height of from 

 twenty-five to five hundred feet above the tide. This lowest suc- 

 cession of slopes constitutes a considerable part of the best grazing 

 land of the island. It is an open rolling district extending inland 

 for a mile or more, everywhere intersected by the narrow gorges 

 or canons, covered with fine grass and dotted with clumps of 

 scrub oak (Quercus dumosa) and some patches of manzanita, 

 with here and there a grove of f Lyonothamnus, a tree peculiar to 

 this island, very ornamental, of graceful contour, with ample fern- 

 like leaves, and large corymbs of small white flowers. 



Back of this terrace the land rises very abruptly, and breaks 

 everywhere into rocky shelves and gorges, and the herbaceous 

 and grassy vegetation gives place to a great variety of trees and 

 shrubs, but of different kinds from those which occupy the deeper 

 and larger cailons where water is. Here are dense forests of a 

 small pine tree, doubtless of the same species, whatever that be, 

 which is found on Guadalupe and Cedros,five hundred miles to the 

 southward: clumps of a large fruited evergreen cherry, identical, 

 I have no doubt, with Prunus ilicifolia of the mainland, but with 

 foliage commonly of quite dififeixnt character, but sometimes just 

 the same, and altogether extremely variable: mipenetrable thick- 

 ets of manzanita, from out which there rises here and there a group 

 of oaks, both Quercus chrysolepis and Q. agrifolia. Thus the 

 northward slope of Santa Cruz is well supplied with wood, grass 

 and water, and it is the favorite range of many thousands of the 

 sheep with which the island is at present mainly stocked. From 

 the summit of the highest ridge one looks southward, not down to 

 the sea on the oth' r side as one would expect, but rather into a 

 long, narrow valley, beyond which arises a seconci range of 

 mountain, less elevated than that whereon we suppose ourselves 

 to be standing, yet high enough to shut out from view the ocean 

 which lies beyond. Up and down this stretc "• of valley are fenced 

 fields and vineyards, and, in the midst of all, an assemblage of 

 cottages and barns. Here dwell the superintendent of the island 

 and the forty or fifty laboring men who are variously employed to 

 carry on the industries of farming, fencing and building, which 

 the present enterprising owner of Santa Cruz has set on foot in 

 addition to that of sheep and cattle raising, to which the island 

 was exclusively devoted in earlier times, under other proprietors. 

 A considerable stream, flowing all through the year, courses down 

 the entire length of this valley, finding an outlet in the fine bay 

 called Prisoner's Harbor. Its passageway thr'ough the mountains 

 is an exceedingly beautiful canon, broad enough in its bed to 



tL. ASPLKNiFOLius, Greene, Bull. Cal. Acad. i. i8T. 



