14 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 



natural limits in that direction. By some, it is considered as embracing, 

 like Chili, only the territory between the Pacific and the summit of the 

 great mountain chain, which borders the western side of the continent : 

 others extend its limits to the Colorado; while others include in it, and 

 others again exclude from it, the entire regions drained by that river. 

 The only portion occupied by the Mexicans, or of which any distinct ac- 

 counts have been obtained, is that between the great chain of mountains 

 and the ocean ; the country east of that ridge to the Colorado appears to 

 be an uninhabitable desert. 



The Californian peninsula is merely the southern portion of the great 

 westernmost chain of mountains, prolonged through the Pacific. It 

 consists entirely of high, stony ridges, separated by narrow, sandy val- 

 leys, and contains no tracts of level ground of any extent. At its 

 southern extremity, the earth is sometimes visited by showers in the sum- 

 mer, but never at any other period of the year : near its junction with 

 the continent, rain is seen only in winter ; and in the intermediate por- 

 tion, many years in succession pass by without the appearance of a 

 drop of water from the heavens, or indeed of a single cloud, while the 

 rays of the sun, thus uninterrupted in their passage, produce a heat as 

 intense as that in any other region of the world. Under such circum- 

 stances, as might be supposed, the springs of water are few and slender, 

 and the surface is almost every where destitute of vegetation. The 

 peninsula is, on the whole, an irreclaimable desert: yet, wherever irri- 

 gation is practicable, the productiveness of the soil is extraordinary ; and 

 the little oases formed by the passage of a slender rivulet through a 

 narrow, sandy defile, may thus be made to yield all the fruits of tropical 

 climes in abundance, and of the finest quality. 



The southern portion of the peninsula contains several mines of gold, 

 which have been worked, though not extensively. The only mine as yet 

 discovered in continental California is one of gold, situated at the foot 

 of the great westernmost range of mountains, on the west, at the dis- 

 tance of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest town in the country. 

 It is said to be of extraordinary richness. 



The animals originally found in California were buffaloes. — though in 

 small numbers, compared with those east of the Rocky Mountains, — deer, 

 elk, bears, wild hogs, wild sheep, ocelotes, beavers, foxes, and many others, 

 generally of species different from those in the Atlantic regions of the 

 continent. Sea otters were very abundant on the northern parts of the 

 coasts, but they have disappeared. Cattle and horses were introduced by 

 the Spaniards from Mexico, and have increased in an extraordinary de- 

 gree, particularly the cattle, with which the valleys near the coast of the 

 continental portion are covered. One of the scourges of this country is 

 the chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appears in summer, especially 

 after a mild winter, in clouds resembling the locusts of Southern Asia, 

 destroying every vegetable substance in their way. 



The aborigines of California are placed, by those who have had the 

 best opportunity of studying their character and disposition, with the 

 Hottentots, the Patagonians, and the Australians, among the lowest of the 

 human race ; those of the continental portion being considered less fero- 

 cious, but more indolent and vicious, than the natives of the peninsula. 

 The Spaniards made many attempts, during the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries, to found settlements in the country, all of which proved 



