Monte Rey, the Capitol of the Province, is situated at the termination of one of these valleys, near the mouth of a small river, and on the bay of Monte Rey, an inlet affording a harbor for shipping, but too much exposed to the Sea to be a good and safe one. The town is small, containing only a population of about three hundred persons, and is built principally of dobies. Forty miles North East from Monte Rey there is a bituminous or Tar Spring oozing out from the foot of a mountain, and covering several acres of ground. This bitumen or mineral Tar is said to answer well all the purposes for which common Tar is used; it is inflamable, and becomes hard by exposure to the atmosphere.
South from Monte Rey, for several hundred miles, there are no valleys of considerable size, or country fit for cultivation, being a succession of high mountains, as far as Santa Barbara. Timber is scarce in this mountainous district, but it is, nevertheless, considered valuable for grazing, being covered with an abundance of oats, and various kinds of nutritious grass. At Santa Barbara there is a fine valley about five miles in width and sixty in length. Immediately south of this valley, and separated from it by a mountain, is the lower Pueblo Valley, of about the same size. These valleys have a black alluvial soil, and are both traversed by small rivers rising in the mountains to the East, flowing to the West, and emptying into the Ocean. They have numerous small tributaries, which arise in the bordering mountains, and empty from either side.
The great objection to this portion of the country is that it is almost entirely destitute of timber. Gold is found in considerable quantities in the upper part of the Pueblo Valley; yet the inconvenience of water renders the working of the mines less profitable. A company was formed, however, about the time of our leaving the
