10 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
a thorough change. The bed gradually widens until the water-way or channel often occupies 
even less than one-fourth of the entire width. The boulders of the canons pass through the 
several gradations of cobble stone, pebbles, gravel, and sand, which becomes finally so light and 
shifting that the channel is continually changing, assuming a zigzag course through its bed. 
The current becomes sluggish, the waters turbid, the volume diminishes, and in many instances 
entirely lost for many months of the year in the absorbing sands of their beds. 
These streams are, however, all insignificant when compared with the water courses of the 
Mississippi basin and Atlantic slope, and with our standard they are not worthy to be called 
rivers. But, nevertheless, the largest are thus known and so called. The most important are 
the Pajaro, Salinas, Santa Inez, San Buenaventura, and Santa Clara. The Salinas drains the 
largest area of country, and has a length of one hundred and fifty-two miles. The Santa Clara 
is about one hundred and fourteen miles long. 
These streams are all readily forded, excepting during a brief period of the rainy season when 
there is more or less danger in crossing, owing to the quicksandy nature of the beds. 
These beds have a depth of from four to twenty feet below the valley bottom, and are bounded 
by vertical walls of soil, when exposed to the undermining action of the stream. 
Section 5. SOIL. 
The soil of the valleys and plains, over which our line traverses, is a very rich alluvial loam, 
extending in many places to great depths. With proper cultivation and attention, these grounds 
will yield crops equal to any in the world. This rich soil is not confined entirely to the plains 
and valley bottoms, for we find the wild oats frequently covering the foot hills, and even 
stretching up the mountain slopes. Besides the wild oats, there is found a great variety of 
grasses, which have afforded the sole pasturage to the herds of countless cattle and horses that 
have roamed here untrammelled for an half a century, the pride of the princely padre and 
patriarchal ranchero. 
These grasses are chiefly annuals, and are reproduced by nature, who carries on through her 
agents, the seasons and winds, all the duties of the ploughman, the seedsman, and harvestman. 
During the long drought of the summer months, the grasses and oats become perfectly cured 
hay, while the seeds ripen and fall to the ground, which, by this very drought is prepared to 
receive them, being cracked and fissured in all directions. The winds scatter and sow, and thus 
the seeds remain in these cracks perfectly preserved until the first rain of the following season, 
which, playing the part of the harrow, crumbles the soil and covers the seed, which soon ger¬ 
minates and leaps forth a new crop. There is also a great variety of flowers intermingled with 
these grasses, whose brilliant colors, contrasted with the rich verdure, give these plains an 
Eden-like aspect in the early spring months, rendering the country then as beautiful and 
inviting as it is bare and forbidding just prior to the rainy season. The great difference in the 
aspect of the country has given rise to the many contradictory accounts given of its fertility 
and agricultural capacities. 
The country west of the crest of the Coast Range extending from San Francisco to San 
Diego was, in the year 1800, under the control of the Spanish priests, who had at that time 
founded sixteen mission establishments. Here were collected the Indians of the mountains, 
and these, under the good management of the padres, erected spacious churches, immense 
suits of apartments, and long rows of quarters. Luxuries soon followed the comforts, these 
establishments soon became princely in their extent, the cattle and horses were counted by 
thousands. This excited the cupidity of the government of Mexico, and in 1833, a decree was 
