582 ARTESIAN WELLS. Book III. 
town of San Jose, and the quicksilver mines of New 
Almaden. 
San Jose is situated in a longitudinal valley between 
two parallel ridges of the coast mountains. This is a pro- 
longation of the space occupied by the southern branch of 
the bay, in a south-easterly direction. The water of the 
bay is very shallow on its extremity, and expands into 
swamps covered, during the winter time, by numberless 
geese and ducks. A steam-boat brings the traveller to the 
upper end of the navigation, whence he may take a place 
in an omnibus to San Jose. The road passes through a 
plain covered with fine fields of wheat, and bordered, 
on both sides, by steep mountains. Two little rivers, 
recognizable from the distance by the long line of trees 
following their respective courses, run along the base of the 
mountains, each on one side of the plain, and empty 
themselves separately into the bay, leaving the middle 
region of the valley completely without water, except by 
artesian wells, of which the most extensive use, and with 
the most satisfactory result, is made in the valley of San 
Jose. The town itself is abundantly provided with water 
by these artificial springs — every garden and almost every 
house having one of its own. This abundant supply for irri- 
gation in a climate naturally dry, and almost absolutely 
without rain during the summer, produces an extraordinary 
fertility and luxuriance in the gardens and fields of San 
Jose. I visited the establishment of a French horticulturist, 
who had dedicated a ground of many acres to the exclusive 
cultivation of roses, for which, as for other flowers, San 
Francisco has a rather extravagant taste, and is a very pro- 
fitable market. In this garden, an artesian well gave origin 
to a brook sufficiently copious to be distributed in nume- 
rous branches over the whole ground, and to irrigate all the 
