20 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 



Catholic missionaries and American traders, who have traversed it in 

 various directions, the northern portion is a wilderness of lofty mountains, 

 apparently forming a continuous chain, from the range which borders the 

 Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains; and the southern division is a 

 desert of sandy plains, and rocky hills, and lakes and marshes, having no 

 outlet to the sea. The heat of the sun in the plains is described, by all 

 who have experienced it, as most intense ; and from their accounts it 

 seems to be certain that this region, with the exception, perhaps, of the 

 portion immediately adjacent to the Colorado River, must ever remain 

 uninhabited. 



The Colorado seems to be the only outlet of the waters of these terri- 

 tories. It is formed near the 41st degree of latitude, by the junction of 

 several streams, rising among the Rocky Mountains, of which the prin- 

 cipal are the Sids-kadee, or Green River, and the Sandy River : thence 

 flowing south-westward, it passes through a range of mountains where its 

 course is broken by numerous ledges of rocks, producing falls and rapids ; 

 after which it receives the Nabaho, the Jaquesila, the Gila, and other large 

 streams from the east, and enters the Gulf of California, under the parallel 

 of 32 degrees. The country in the vicinity of this river, for some distance 

 from its mouth, is flat, and is overflowed during the rainy season, when 

 the quantity of water discharged is very great ; and high embankments 

 are thus made by the deposit of the mud on each side, similar to those on 

 the Lower Mississippi. How far the Colorado may be ascended by vessels 

 from the gulf, is not known : from some accounts, it seems to be navigable 

 for three or four hundred miles; while, according to others, on which 

 more reliance may be placed, obstacles to the passage of vessels occur 

 much nearer to the sea. 



West of the Colorado, between the 40th and the 42d degrees of lati- 

 tude, is a great collection of salt water, called the Utah Lake, probably 

 the same which appears on the old Spanish maps, under the names of 

 Lake Timpanogos and Lake Tegayo. It is fed by several streams, the 

 principal of which is the Bear River, entering on the north-east, after a 

 long and tortuous course through the mountains. Near the northern- 

 most part of this river is an extensive plain of white calcareous earth, on 

 the borders of which are several springs of water, called the Soda or 

 Beer Springs, highly charged with carbonic acid gas, and one, the temper- 

 ature of which is but little below the boiling point. 



Around the Utah Lake are other collections of water, some salt, and 

 having no outlet ; others fresh, and communicating either with the great 

 lake, or with the Colorado. The principal of these is Ashley's Lake, 

 situated about a hundred miles south of the Utah Lake, on the banks of 

 which a fur-trading establishment, called Fort Ashley, was founded by the 

 Americans, in 1827 ; but it has since been abandoned. 



Having thus presented the most remarkable features of California, 

 those of Oregon, or the country of the Columbia next adjoining on the 

 north, will be described. 



