Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/607

CALIFORNIA 601 mainland opposite Santa Barbara county ; San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, and San Clemente, which is the most southerly. They are hilly, rocky, and generally sterile. Some of them are used for sheep grazing, and others are the resort of great numbers of seal, otter, beaver, &c. The Sacramento and San Joaquin are the most important rivers in Cali- fornia, the former having its head springs in Mt. Shasta and its connected spurs in the N. part of the state, and the latter rising in the Tulare lakes on the south ; they flow toward each other, the former S. and the latter N., draining the great valley to which they jointly give name, until they finally unite near lat. 38, turn abruptly W., and flow through Suisun bay into the bay of San Francisco. Nearly all the tributaries of these rivers are small, and flow chiefly from the Sierra Nevada, the principal being the Feather, with three consid- erable forks, the Yuba, and the American, flowing into the Sacramento, and the Calave- ras, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced, into the San Joaquin. The Sacramento is about 370 m. long, and is navigable for large steam- boats at all seasons to Sacramento, 90 m. from its mouth, or 120 m. from San Francisco, and for smaller craft to Red Bluff's, about 150 or 200 m. above Sacramento. The San Joaquin, about 350 m. long, is navigable for ordinary steamers to Stockton, and for small craft during the rainy season to the mouth of the Tulare slough, about 150 m. Kern river, between lat. 35 and 36, forma the S. boundary of the mining region. The Klamath flows from Ore- gon through the N. W. corner of the state, with a considerable affluent from the south called the Trinity, and empties into the Pacific. The Salinas, or Buenaventura, flowing N. into the bay of Monterey, drains the valley between the Coast range and a minor one, called the Morena. The Rio Pajaro, having its outlet near that of the Salinas, and the Eel and Russian rivers on the north, are considerable streams. The Colorado, forming in part the S. E. boundary of the state, is an important river, flowing S. into the gulf of California, and navigable to Callville, 612 m. above its mouth. There are numerous streams of less importance on the S. coast, most of which are lost in the sands before reaching the ocean. There are few lakes worthy of men- tion in California. The largest is Tulare, in the S. part of the state, which is very shoal ; it is about 33 m. long by 22 wide, though in the wet season it covers a much larger area. Owen's, Kern, and Buena Vista are much smaller lakes, in the same vicinity. Conner lake and Lake Tahoe are small bodies of water much visited by tourists, lying near the E. bor- der of the state N. of San Francisco. Mono, li m. long from E. to W. and 9 m. wide, lies in Mono county, E. of the Sierra Nevada. The water, being saturated with various mineral substances, the chief of which are salt, lime, fcorax, and the carbonate of soda, is intensely bitter and saline, and of such high specific gravity that the human body floats in it very lightly. No living thing except the larva of a small fly and a small crustacean inhabits this lake, which is sometimes called the Dead sea of California. The other lakes are : Clear, in Lake county, in the W. part of the state, about 10 m. long ; and Klamath and Goose lakes, lying partly in Oregon. -The geological sur- vey of the state, under the direction of Prof. Whitney, has been in progress since 1860. Geologically considered, California belongs chiefly to the palreozoic and tertiary epochs. The rocks are principally granite formations of the secondary and tertiary ages ; the former occurring in the high mountains, the latter in the valleys. A bituminous slate formation of the tertiary age extends through the state as far N. as Cape Mendocino, above which more recent formations are found. Much of the rock is metamorphic. The Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys are covered with a dilu- vium from 400 to 1,500 ft. deep. Throughout the coast range serpentine and silicious fer- ruginous rock occurs in connection with cin- nabar. No older formation than the cretaceous is found except in the extreme northern part of the state. In the Monte Diablo range the mountain masses are almost wholly made up of cretaceous and tertiary strata, with instances of peculiar local metamorphism. The Contra Costa hills consist principally of cretaceous and tertiary strata, which are irregular in strike and dip. Near San Francisco the hills appear to be composed of an argillaceous sandstone, while jaspery rocks occur in the outskirts. In the coast ranges N. of the bay of San Francisco, while they are generally of similar character to those already described, silieious and jaspery rocks predominate, and serpentine is found in enormous masses. The geology of the S. part of the state is but little known. The Sierra Ne- vada range consists of a central mass of granite, flanked by metamorphic slates of secondary age. The highest summits and broadest mass of the chain in the S. portion are composed of granite ; metamorphic slates, belonging to the E. flank, form the summits of the central por- tion, while the highest points of the N. portion of the chain are formed of volcanic rocks. The W. flank, at a considerable elevation, is marked at intervals along the Sacramento and San Joaquin valley by undisturbed marine tertiary and cretaceous strata. S. of Sacra- mento the tertiary strata are well developed, while further N. the cretaceous rests upon the upturned auriferous slates. Upon the creta- ceous rest tertiary strata connected with vol- canic material. Much of the N. portion of this chain is highly volcanic. In former eras there were probably many volcanoes in the range. Numerous fossil remains have been found in the state. Beds of marine shells have been met with on the shores of San Pablo bay, on the sides of Monte Diablo, and on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The mineralogy