half of the area
of the State of Illinois. This range is exceedingly fertile, probably
equal to any soil on the earth. The climate is excellent, the air pure
and healthy, neither too cool nor too hot, and well calculated for the
products of a temperate climate, as well as many of tropical. Grass
grows on the bottoms all the year, and farming may be carried on in all
months of the winter, if not prevented by the rain. No frosts ever nip
the crops, and the seasons present a perpetual spring. The plains are
somewhat elevated from the bottoms, gently rolling, and resemble our
prairies. The soil is fertile, but cannot be cultivated without
irrigation in the summer, although crops are raised by sowing in
November and December, which enables them to get so far advanced by the
commencement of the dry season as to avoid the drouth. In the spring
they are covered with a great variety of flowers, wild oats, and
clover. The timber on this range consists of live oak, and various oaks
resembling white burr and black oak, besides various shrubs. The second
range is the lower hill or mountain range, which is also the gold
range. The soil would admit of cultivation if it could be irrigated,
but this would be impossible, from the nature of the country. It will
be only available for its gold, which is inexhaustible in my opinion,
although the business of gathering it will not be as profitable
hereafter as it has been. The timber in the range consists of the
various kinds of oak and pine, with some cedar and spruce; it is not
valuable, but will answer the wants of this range for the present. The
third range is the timber range, which in time will be the most
valuable part of California. Probably no part of the world will furnish
such pine and cedar timber. The valleys are filled with trees from two
to three hundred feet high, clear from limbs nearly to their tops, and
of the best quality for lumber; many of the trees from five to ten feet
in diameter at the foot. I saw a pine tree said to be 11, and a cedar
15 feet thro', and have no doubt but such was the fact. They can only
be got out of the mountains by railways or the rivers at flood time,
consequently it will be some years before the attention of the
Californian will be turned to this branch of trade. But little gold has
been found in this range, or probably ever will be, as the quartz
veins, the original deposit of gold, if they exist at all in it, lie
deep under the granite ridges.