been improved by the hand of civiliza-[48]tion. A lofty range, called the Snowy mountains, divides it from Oregon. This range extends from the Pacific ocean, eastwardly, to the Rocky mountains, is broken into a great number of subordinate ranges, spurs, and detached peaks. It is bounded by the valley of the Colorado, and by rugged walls of rocky highlands on the east, and its surface is diversified by groups of wooded hills, extensive prairies and marshes, and a multitude of streams, some of which are rapid and others sluggish in their currents. The Colorado drains this district on the east, and empties its waters into the gulf of California. Several rivers on the west flow into the bay of San Francisco.
The prairies, which form perhaps one half of the surface of this region, differ widely in character, extent, in formation, and fertility; but in general they are covered with a deep and rich soil, andf with an exuberant vegetation. Their uniformity is broken by numerous well-wooded hills and hillocks, and by those belts of forest which stretch along all the water-courses.
The mountainous regions are, in general, heavily timbered; but occasionally, instead of forests, we find tracts of utter barrenness, bearing the strongest marks of volcanic action, and destitute of all appearance of vegetable life.
There is one continuous line of prairie extending from the gulf of California to the 39th parallel, sometimes a hundred miles wide, and seldom less than ten, opening to the ocean only at the bay of San Francisco, its surface so diversified by fringes of trees along the borders of its streams, and by the wooded capes and peninsulas which break the uniformity of its outline, as to present the appearance of a chain of prairies of every conceivable size and form. Here, amidst the luxuriant grasses and native oats which cover its surface, immense herds of cattle, and wild game, and droves of horsts, find abundant pasturage.
Although most of these prairies are very fertile, my observation led me to doubt whether they could all be readily and
