18 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 



The mission, situated three miles south of the town, in a valley, through 

 which runs the torrent of San Carrnelo, embraces extensive buildings, 

 but is in a ruinous state, and nearly deserted. 



The surrounding country possesses a good soil and a delightful cli- 

 mate, and might be rendered very productive by irrigation, for which two 

 small rivers, flowing from the mountains, offer abundant supplies of water 

 at all times ; it, however, remains uncultivated, and scarcely any article of 

 food is obtained from it, except the meat of the cattle covering the valleys. 

 From the eastern shore of the bay, a sandy plain extends eastward to the 

 foot of the San Bruno Mountains, traversed by a river called the Buena- 

 ventura, which is erroneously represented, on some maps, as flowing 

 through the great ridge from the interior countries. North of the bay, at 

 a little distance from Cape New Year, is the mission of Santa Cruz, to 

 which vessels commonly resort for water and provisions; and farther in 

 the interior, beyond the San Bruno range, is the town of Branciforte, one 

 of the largest in California. 



The next remarkable headland on the coast north of the Bay of Mon- 

 terey is that called Punta de los Reyes, or the Cape of Kings, composed of 

 high white cliffs, projecting into the Pacific, under the 38th degree of lat- 

 itude ; when seen from the north or the south, it presents the appearance 

 of an island, being connected with the main land on the east by low 

 ground. A few miles south of this point are two clusters of rocky islets, 

 called Farellones, immediately east of which, 



The Bay of San Francisco joins the Pacific by a passage or channel 

 two miles wide, and three in length, under the parallel of 37 degrees 

 55 minutes, nearly in the same latitude with the entrance of Chesapeake 

 Bay, and the Straits of Gibraltar. From this passage the bay extends 

 northward and southward, surrounded by ranges of high hills, and con- 

 taining some of the most convenient, beautiful, and secure harbors, on 

 the Pacific, and, indeed, in the world. 



The southern branch of the bay extends south-eastward about thirty miles, 

 terminating in that direction in a number of small arms, receiving streams 

 from the hills. Its average breadth is about twelve miles ; and it may be 

 considered as occupying the bottom, or northern extremity of a long 

 valley, included between the San Bruno Mountains on the west and the 

 Bolbones ridge on the east. Farther up this valley, in the south, are 

 the large Lakes of Tule, which communicate with each other and with 

 the bay during the rainy season, and are said to be surrounded by a 

 delightful country, containing a numerous population of natives. 



The northern branch of the bay becomes contracted, near the entrance, 

 into a strait, beyond which is a basin, ten miles in diameter, called the 

 Bay of San Pablo. A second passage, called the Strait of Carquines, 

 connects this basin with another, containing many islands, into which 

 empty the Sacramento, and one or two smaller streams. The Sacramento 

 rises among the mountains of the great westernmost chain, near the 41st 

 degree of latitude, and is said to receive a branch flowing through those 

 mountains from the east. Thence it flows, in a very tortuous course, about 

 three hundred miles, southward, to its entrance in the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco, being navigable by small vessels to the distance of more than one 

 hundred miles from the bay. The lower part of the country traversed by 

 it is an alluvial plain, parts of which are prairies, while others are cov- 

 ered with forests of noble trees, principally oaks, and the whole appears to 



