448 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



to the southern part of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada in the Mount Whitney section. 



This range is composed of pale gray 

 granite, and has a gradual slope through 

 series of foothills to the west and a pre- 

 cipitous escarpment 3,000 to 8,000 feet 

 high fronting the desert on the east. 



The only pine forest in Lower Cali- 

 fornia occupies the top of these moun- 

 tains and extends almost the entire length 

 of the range. It forms a narrow belt of 

 rather scrubby yellow pines, with many 

 Murray pines and a few sugar pines and 

 incense cedars on the San Pedro Martir 

 Mountains. At present this timber is of 

 little value, while the growth is so widely 

 scattered and difficult of access that 

 much of it will always remain of no 

 economic value. From the southern end 

 of San Pedro Martir Mountains the 

 main mountains of the peninsula con- 

 tinue as a lower, broader, and much 

 more broken chain, made up of detached 

 ridges, spurs, and occasional isolated 

 peaks. These mountains lie almost 

 wholly in the eastern half of the penin- 

 sula and often form a precipitous shore- 

 line, sometimes for long distances along 

 the Gulf. 



Lower scattered ranges and foothills 

 sometimes border the Pacific coast, but 

 coastal plains extend for hundreds of 

 miles along that shore. From the north- 

 ern border southerly to near La Paz the 

 general elevated interior backbone is con- 

 tinuous, but at this point the mountains 

 descend to a broad, low plain, which ex- 

 tends across the peninsula from shore to 

 shore and isolates the mountains of the 

 extreme southern end from those of the 

 north. 



The mountains from La Paz north to 

 the middle of the peninsula are chiefly 

 volcanic. On the Gulf side these vol- 

 canic ranges have an abrupt slope ; on 

 the westerly side they form great lava- 

 covered, sloping plateaus, broken by 

 crater cones and scored and gashed by 

 huge ragged canyons from 1,000 to 3,000 

 feet deep. This volcanic region contains 

 some of the wildest and most desolate 

 scenery imaginable, in the midst of which 

 are set oases which include the most 



beautiful inhabited places in the penin- 

 sula (see pages 456-459). 



AN UNSUCCESSFUL COLONY 



Three extended desert plains border 

 the Pacific coast and are separated by 

 low coastal mountains. The smallest 

 and most northerly of these plains lies 

 about San Quintin Bay and contains 

 much fertile land and considerable water 

 at moderate depth, although there is little 

 on the surface. An unsuccessful attempt 

 was made to colonize these lands on a 

 large scale at the same time the effort 

 already referred to was made at En- 

 senada. A large flour-mill was built at 

 the head of San Quintin Bay, to grind 

 the wheat the colonists were to grow, 

 and a railroad started and built a few 

 miles northward on its way to San 

 Diego, where it was to carry the product 

 of the mill ! The little village of San 

 Quintin, now consisting of a customs- 

 house, a store, and a few dwelling-houses 

 back from a small wharf, is the supply 

 point for American prospectors and 

 miners working among the barren moun- 

 tains of this region. 



From a few miles south of San Quin- 

 tin to Santa Rosalia Bay the west coast 

 is hilly. South of the last-named bay a 

 great plain, the largest on the peninsula, 

 comes in and extends for over 150 miles 

 southward and from 40 to 50 miles in- 

 land. This is the Santa Clara Desert, 

 which became known to many adventur- 

 ous prospectors when the Santa Clara 

 "dry placers" were discovered. These 

 placers are on the seaward slope of the 

 Santa Clara range, which borders the 

 coast southeasterly from Cape San Eu- 

 genio, and their discovery led to a rush 

 in 1900, but the scarcity of water on this 

 inhospitable desert soon caused them to 

 be abandoned. Santo Domingo Bay, on 

 the northern border of this desert, is the 

 landing place for supplies for the small 

 mining camps of Calmalli and Campo 

 Aleman, to which a good wagon road 

 leads straight away into the interior. 



A NOTED BREEDING RESORT LOR WHALES 



A little further south lies Scammon 

 Lagoon, once a noted breeding resort for 



