TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
331 
the dry season; in the rainy season and during the early part 
of the summer, steam vessels of three hundred tons measure¬ 
ment can ascend its eastern branch several hundred miles 
farther. 
It is difficult to convey by means of words the exceeding 
beauty and excellence of this portion of the valley of the 
Sacramento. To one who has seen it all attempts to do so 
must appear tame and uninteresting. I may say that the 
linear distance from the mouth to the forks is about sixty 
miles, and that the river in making that progress meanders 
one hundred and fifty ; that for the most part of this distance, 
■within the verge of the valley, grows a belt of oak trees, 
about three hundred yards wide, crowded with flowering vines 
and wild fruits, and interspersed with the lofty plane and 
other beautiful trees, variegating the scene ; that beyond this 
belt, on either side of the river, stand clumps of forests over the 
endless seas of grass that reach aw’ay to the distant moun¬ 
tains ; and that there are many mounds of earth on these 
great savannas built unknown ages ago by the Indians, from 
which to gaze over these surpassing regions, and to view in 
safety the rush of the spring-floods covering the country far 
and near. And should I continue the attempt to lead the 
reader on, despite the certainty that he will not gain thereby 
•the conception of it which I desire to convey to him, I 
might state that it is an open champaign country, cut on the 
east side of the river by numerous beautiful tributaries skirted 
with timber, and on the west dotted and striped with groves and 
lakes, and that this is one of the richest grazing and agricul¬ 
tural districts of the Californias. During the rainy season, the 
river rises from eighteen to twenty-four feet, and overflowing 
immense tracts of prairies, produces a succession of beautiful 
lakes, through which its floods rush towards the Gulf. From 
the upper country are thus brought down great quantities of 
rich loam, which are deposited upon the lower plains, rendering 
them as productive and beautiful as the banks of the Nile. 
From ten to thirty miles distance from the river, the land 
