“GENERAL FEATURES. 623 
the greater part of the surface consisted of gravel. After leaving the 
Umpqua, on our way south, we seldom met with a patch of good soil, 
and found in the country little to encourage the agriculturist. This 
remark should be understood, however, as applying to the region 
along our track. 
Leaving the Clammat region just south of 42°, we entered the 
Shasty Mountains, and were nearly a week ascending and descending 
steep and sharp ridges, from a few hundred to two thousand feet high ; 
we at last opened on the plains of the Sacramento, two hundred and 
fifty miles above its mouth. Instead of rich alluvial plains, we were 
destined to journey another forty miles over a harder pebbly soil than 
any we had seen on the whole route. The river has its upper and 
lower plains, differing sixty feet in height. The former were found 
to have this pebbly character wherever examined; they were often 
broken into rolling hills, and were dismally scanty in vegetation. 
The lower prairie or bottom-lands reminded us of the Willammet, and 
compensated in part for the barrenness of the upper country. ‘The 
soil was in general a rich loam, and in a moister climate would rank 
high for its agricultural resources; and with only three months of 
rainy season followed by eight or nine of drought, it is by no means 
unfavourable for tillage. ‘The alluvial region of this river, two hun- 
dred miles from its mouth, is twenty miles wide; and one hundred 
miles from San Francisco has twice this extent. In the season when 
traversed by us, the month of October, there was no green grass to be 
seen, excepting immediately along the water; and the whole surface 
was the Willammet over again. The cattle during this season graze 
over the dried grass of the fields, which looks like a growth of ready 
made hay. The same features continued to characterize the country 
to the Bay of San Francisco. The valley of the San Joaquin is 
described as one of great fertility. The only drawback in the region, 
and it belongs to all Northern California, arises from the short season 
of rains, and the long one of drought; and when the rains fail altoge- 
ther, as occasionally happens, the country yields almost nothing, ex- 
cept where artificially irrigated. 
Middle and Inner Sections.—Exploring parties from the vessels of 
the Expedition penetrated towards the interior, to Forts Wallawalla, 
Okanagan, and Colville. From these sources and the reports of 
others who have traversed these regions, we learn that dry, drier, 
driest, expresses the character of the country as we go east. Between 
the Cascade Range and the Blue Mountains, and over the region 
