GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 19 



be well adapted for the support of a large population. The other rivers 

 falling into this basin are the San Joaquin from the south, and the Jesus 

 Maria from the north, both inconsiderable streams. 



In the country around this bay, settlements and cultivation have ad- 

 vanced more than in any other part of California. Near its southern ex- 

 tremity are the town of San Jose and the mission of Santa Clara, in a 

 delightful region, producing grains and fruits of various kinds in pro- 

 fusion, and affording pasture to numerous herds of cattle. On the 

 northern branch are the missions of San Raefael, and San Francisco 

 Solano; and many small establishments for farming or grazing have been 

 formed at other points. The town, mission, and fort of San Francisco, 

 are all situated near the south side of the passage connecting the bay 

 with the Pacific, on a plain at the termination of the San Bruno Moun- 

 tains. The principal anchorage for vessels is a cove a few miles south 

 of the entrance-passage, between the western shore of the bay and the 

 Island of Yerba Buena, where a settlement has been commenced by the 

 English and Americans, who conduct nearly all the trade of that part 

 of California. 



Near Cape de los Reyes, on the north, is the entrance of the Bay of 

 Bodega, which thence extends northward and southward, a few miles in 

 each direction. On the shore of the northern branch, the Russians, in 

 1812, formed an establishment, chiefly with the view of supplying their 

 settlements farther north with grain and meat; and some years after- 

 wards, another, called Ross, was made by the same nation, on the coast 

 of the Pacific, thirty miles north of Bodega, in latitude of 38 degrees 33 

 minutes, near the mouth of a small stream, named by them the Slavinka 

 Ross. In 1838, each place contained a stockaded fort, enclosing maga- 

 zines and dwellings for the officers, and surrounded by other buildings, 

 among which were mills, shops for smiths and carpenters, and stables for 

 cattle ; and in the neighborhood of Bodega, farms were worked, from 

 which several thousand bushels of wheat, besides pease, and other 

 vegetables, butter, and cheese, were annually sent to the trading posts 

 in the north. These establishments proved constant sources of annoy- 

 ance to the Spaniards, and to their Mexican successors, who did not, 

 however, venture to attempt to remove them by force; in 1841, they 

 were abandoned by the Russians, who transferred all their interests in 

 that quarter to a company or party composed of citizens of the United 

 States, and others, equally determined to resist the authority of Mexico. 



Cape Mendocino, which appears to be the natural point of junction of 

 the coasts of California and Oregon, is the most elevated land near the 

 Pacific in that quarter. It consists of two high promontories, situated 

 about ten miles apart, of which the southern and the most elevated is 

 situated under the parallel of 40 degrees 19 minutes, nearly in the same 

 latitude with Sandy Hook, at the entrance of the bay of New York ; 

 and is believed to be the western termination of the great chain of the 

 Snowy Mountains, which forms the southern barrier of the regions 

 drained by the Columbia. This cape was formerly much dreaded by 

 the Spanish navigators, on account of the storms usually prevailing in 

 its vicinity ; but, those fears having passed away, the cape has lost much 

 of the respect with which it was regarded by mariners. 



The interior of California, east of the mountains which border the 

 coast, is imperfectly known. According to the vague reports of the 



