CHAPTER III. 
SANTA CLARA VALLEY. 
Position and boundaries op the santa clara valley.—Structure of the hills bounding the sides op the valley.—Subsoil 
AND STRATA OP THE VALLEY.—ARTESIAN WELLS IN.—DEPTH OP THE QUATERNARY CLAYS.—CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.—FRUIT 
orchards.—Cereals.—Productiveness op the soil.—Cinnabar mine op new almaden.—Position op the mine, village, and 
hacienda.—Geological relations op the ore.—Method op mining.—Quantity extracted.—Operations at the hacienda 
furnaces.—Mode op charging.—Unhealthiness op the operation arising chiefly prom unskilfulness in the conducting op 
THE PROCESSES.—RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REMEDYING IT.—VALUE OP THE SHIPMENTS.—PAJARO VALLEY.—EXTENT AND CHARACTER.— 
Geological structure.—San Bonito river, terraces upon. 
The Santa Clara, or, as it is sometimes called, the San Jose valley, is of a triangular shape, 
with its base to the north, where it is intruded upon by the Bay of San Francisco. Its length 
is about thirty miles, when it narrows by the convergence of the two ranges of the Coast 
mountains—the Monte Diablo and the Santa Cruz mountains. At the south it is closed by the 
Llomas Muertas, a small chain given off from the Gavilan range. Properly describing the 
valley, would he to include the whole Bay of San Francisco as occupying all the lower level, 
and its southern borders would he the hills of Alameda and Contra Costa on the one hand, and 
the rugged peninsular of San Francisco county on the other. These latter, including the 
Monte Bruno, are chiefly trappean and serpentine rocks, with diallage rock, talcose slates, and 
occasionally masses of hornblende schist, and average from 1,500 to 2,000 feet in height. 
The range on the east side of the valley is the continuation southward of the trappean and 
laval uplifts on the west side of the granite of Monte Diablo, and is more elevated than 
the Santa Cruz range. The sedimentary rocks, uplifted by the plutonic action, are con¬ 
glomerate grits and sandstones, with a very high dip to the west, and which extend from the 
shores of the Bay of Suisun, the Straits of Carquinez, and the eastern portion of the Bay of 
San Pablo. The sandstones are in places cut through and injected with lava and quartz veins, 
and in places merely hardened and rendered metamorphic. 
The valley bottom is composed of beds of heavy alluvial clay, of considerable depth, which 
repose on the beds of sandstone just adverted to, which, dipping west under the valley, rise 
again on the opposite side of the Santa Cruz mountains. The oak which grows on the plain is 
of a dwarfed character, and only suitable for fire-wood or fencing. But little timber is found on 
the Santa Cruz hills. 
The lowest portions of the valley below the towns of San Jose and Alviso, embracing the 
head of the hay, is a continuous mud flat, which reaches round the east margin of the hay into 
Alameda county. It grows only salt marsh grass and rush in its wet condition, hut when 
drained and cultivated, as has been done on the east side of the hay, it is found to he one of the 
most productive of soils. Miles of the hay shore might be enclosed, drained and reclaimed, and 
be made suitable for any crop, for the presence of rush and salt grass is an indication of a soil 
well charged with vegetable matter. 
The subsoil and underlying strata of the valley are well supplied with water. Artesian 
