156 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
\ 
up from common wells, for which purpose windmills ave. Ex 
tensively used, and thus most of the water used for irrigation 
is obtained. A large part of the valley, especially of that near 
the rivers, is subject to overflow; and about once in five years 
a flood comes, sweeping away houses, fences, and cattle, de- 
stroying gardens, and covering the earth with a thick clay, 
which, instead of enriching the soil, is far poorer than the an- 
cient deposits of sandy loam, made before the miners had com- 
menced to tear down the mountains for their golden treasures. 
In these times of flood, so much of the valley is covered with 
water, that it looks like a great lake, and the pilots of the river 
steamers know the channel only by the rows of trees along the 
banks, for the banks themselves are completely hidden from 
sight. The flood rarely comes earlier than January or later 
than March. 
The bottém-lands along the Feather River are considered 
richer than those near the banks of the Sacramento. Tribu- 
tary to Sacramento valley on the western side is Cache Creek 
valley, about twenty miles long by five wide; and connected 
with it is Clear Lake valley, a basin nearly circular in shape, 
and twenty miles across, surrounded by mountains. The lake 
is about one thousand feet above the sea. South of Cache 
Creek, and also tributary to the Sacramento valley, is Putah 
Creek, which drains Berreyesa valley, twenty miles long by 
two wide. These little valleys have very rich land; and being 
shut in by near mountains, the soil is much moister than out 
in the open plain. The nearer to the coast and the farther 
north, the greater the moisture as a general rule; and it may 
almost be said that the value of the land depends upon the 
moisture. 
In the northwestern corner of the Sacramento Basin, along 
the banks of Cottonwood Creek, there are some beautiful, 
moist, and fertile little vales. The Sacramento valley has very 
few trees, save along the banks of the streams and stream- 
beds, where oaks, sycamores, laurels, willows, buckeyes, birch, 
and wild grape, are the principal growth, marking in summer 
