2 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
ramento Basin, the Plateau of the Sierra Nevada, the Kila- 
math Basin, the Great Basin of Utah, and the Colorado 
Desert. 
§2. Ooast Mountains —The Coast range, though not so 
high or so wide as the Sierra Nevada, may be considered 
the main orographical feature of California, because it alone 
extends through the whole length of the state. The height 
of the range is from two thousand to six thousand feet; 
its width from twenty to forty miles. South of 34° 20’ the 
spurs are short and run at right angles to the course of the 
main divide, which is the easternmost ridge of the chain; 
nearly all the spurs, valleys, and streams, run to the west- 
ward. South of 34° 20’ a plain from twenty-five to forty 
miles wide lies between the mountains and the sea; north of 
that the spurs make up the greater part of the Coast line, 
and, where they enter the ocean, form the headlands and 
capes. The Santa Susanna spur starts from the main ridge in 
34° 20’ and runs west by south, and is separated by the valley 
of the Santa Clara River from the Santa Inez ridge, which 
starts in 34° 80’ and runs west; then continuing our course 
northward, across the Santa Inez valley, we come to the Santa 
Barbara ridge, which starts from the main ridge in 34° 40’ and 
runs west-northwest. The Cuyama valley separates the Santa 
Barbara from the Santa Lucia ridge, which branches off at 
35° in a northwestern direction, and forms the southern bound- 
ary of the Salinas valley, whose northern boundary is the Gab- 
ilan ridge, starting in 36° 10’ and running north-northwest; 
Senne We separated from the Contra Costa ridge, rising in 
37° 10’ by the Santa Clara valley, and the Contra Costa ridge 
is separated from the main divide by the Amador and San 
Ramon valleys. The Gabilan ridge forms the back-bone of 
Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties, each of 
which gives its name to that portion within its borders. The 
ridge is cut in two on the southern border of Santa Cruz 
county by the Pajaro River, and the Alameda Creek breaks 
through the Contra Costa ridge. North of the Golden Gate, 
