330 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
and rendered fruitful, while the prairies will give sustenance 
to immense herds of domestic animals. 
Rio Sacramento. —The Rio Sacramento is much larger 
than the San Joaquim, and its valley contains a much greater 
quantity of fertile land. The mouth of this river is a little 
north of that of the San Joaquim. Indeed these two streams 
mingle their waters around a considerable island which lies 
before the mouth of each. They both enter the eastern ex¬ 
tremity of the Bay of San Francisco, about seventy miles 
from the Pacific. It is two days’ hard rowing from the mouth 
of this river to the junction of its two principal branches, 
called “ the forks.” At the mouth the soil is peaty, and over¬ 
flowed by the spring tides. As you advance higher, where 
the tide has no influence, the soil becomes substantial, pro¬ 
ducing roses, arbutus, and other shrubs, most luxuriantly, as 
well as the wild oats and rye. These grains, resowing them¬ 
selves from year to year, produce perpetual food for the wild 
animals and Indians. These plains are burned over every 
year by the Indians ; and the consequence is, that the young 
trees, which would otherwise have grown into forests, are 
destroyed, and the large trees often killed. Nevertheless, the 
oak, the plane tree, of immense size, the ash, of an excellent 
quality, covered with the wild grape vines, fringe the stream 
everywhere, and divide the country into beautiful glades and 
savannas, which, when the leaves are fading, when the grape 
hangs in the greatest profusion on the limbs, and the deep 
red flowers of autumn dot the grassy fields, and birds sing 
their melancholy hymns to the dying year, give the finest 
picture that the mind can conceive, of a beautiful wilderness. 
The water of the Sacramento is very pure. Its banks from 
the mouth to the forks are entirely alluvial, a deposit of sand 
and clay. The bottom varies from a very loose mud and 
quicksand to a stiff red clay. 
The forks lie in Lat. 38° 46' 47" N., and Long. 0° 47' 31 
East of Yerba Buena, near the entrance of the Bay of San Fran¬ 
cisco. The stream is navigable for small craft to the forks in 
