The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-11 00:00:00

WESTERN SLOPE OF THE SIERRA NEVADA.

The western flank of the Sierra belongs to the
maritime region of California, and is capable of add-
ing greatly to its value. It i 3 a long wide slope,
timbered and grassy, with intervals of arable land,
copiously watered with numerous and bold streams,
and without the cold which its name and altitude
might imply. In length it is the whole extent of the
Long valley at its base, five hundred miles. In breadth
it is from forty to seventy miles, from the summit of
the mountain to the termination of the foot hills in
the edge of the valleys below, and almost the whole
of it available for some useful purpose—timber, pas-
turage, some arable land, mills, quarries—and so
situated as to be convenient for use, the wide slope of
the mountain being of easy and practicable descent.
Timber holds the first place in the advantages of this
slope, the whole being heavily wooded, first with
oaks, which predominate to about half the eleva-
tion of the mountain, and then with pines, cypress,
and cedars, the pine predominating ; and hence
called the pine region, as that below is called the
oak region, though mixed with other trees.
The highest summits of the Sierra are naked,
massive granite rock, covered with snow, in sheltered
places all the year round. The oaks are several va-
rieties white and black oak, and evergreens, some of
them resembling live oak. Of the white oak there
are some new species, attaining a handsome elevation,
upon a stem six feet in diameter. Acorns of uncom-
mon size, and not bad taste, used regularly for food,
by the Indians, abound on these trees, and will be
of great value for stock. The cypress, pines, and
cedar, are between 100 and 250 feet high, and five
to twelve feet in diameter, with clean solid stems.
Grass abounds on almost all parts of the slope, except
towards the highest summits, and is fresh and green
all the year round, being neither killed by cold in the
winter, nor dried by want of rain in the summer. The
foot hills of the slope are sufficiently fertile and
gentle to admit of good settlements, while valleys,
coves, beaches, and meadows of arable land are found
throughout. Many of the numerous streams, some
of them amounting to considerable rivers which flow
down the mountain side, make handsome, fertile
valleys. All these streams furnish good water power.
The climate in the lower part of the slope is that of
constant spring, while above the cold is not in pro-
portion to the elevation.
BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND DEPENDENT COUNTRY.

The bay of San Francisco has been celebrated,
from the time of its first discovery, as one of the
finest in the world, and is justly entitled to that cha-
racter, even under the seaman's view of a mere har-
bour. But when all the necessary advantages which
belong to it—fertile and picturesque dependent coun-
try, mildness and salubrity of climate, connexion
with the great interior valley of the Sacramento and
San Joaquin, its vast resources for ship timber, grain,
and cattle, when these advantages are taken into the
account, with its geographical position on the line of
communication with Asia, it rises into an importance

far above that of a mere harbour, and deserves a
particular notice in any account of maritime Cali-
fornia. Its latitudinal position is that of Lisbon; its
climate is that of southern Italy; settlements upon it
for more than half a century attest its healthful-
ness; bold shores and mountains give it grandeur;
the extent and fertility of its dependent country.give
it great resources for agriculture, commerce, and
population.
The bay of San Francisco is separated from the
sea by low mountain ranges. Looking from the peaks
of the Sierra Nevada, the coast mountains present an
apparently continuous line, with only a single gap,
resembling a mountain pass. This is the entrance to
the great bay, and is the only water communicatim

from the coast to the interior-country. Approaching
from the sea, the coast presents a bold outline. On
the south, the bordering mountains come down

in a narrow ridge of broken hills, terminating
in a precipitous point, against which the sea breaks
heavily. On the northern side, the mountain presents
a bold promontory, rising in a few miles to a height
of two or three thousand feet. Between these points
is the strait—about one mile broad in the narrowest
part, and five miles long from the sea to the bay.
Passing through this gate,* the bay opens to the
right and left, extending in each direction
about thirty-five miles, having a total length of
more than seventy, and a coast of about 275 miles. It
is divided by straits and projecting points into three
separate bays, of which the northern two are called
San Pablo and Suisoon bays. Within, the view
presented is of a mountainous country, the bay re-
sembling an interior lake of deep water, lying between
parallel ranges of mountains. Islands, which have
the bold character of the shores—some mere masses of
rock, and others grass-covered, rising to the height
of three and eight hundred feet, break its surface,
and add to its picturesque appearance. Directly
fronting the entrance, mountains, a few miles from
the shore, rise about 2,000 feet above the water,
crowned by a forest of the lofty cypress, which is
visible from the sea, and makes a conspicuous land.
mark for vessels entering the bay. Behind, the
rugged peak of Mount Diavolo, nearly 4,000 feet
high (3.770), overlooks the surrounding country of
the bay and San Joaquin. The immediate shore of
the bay derives, from its proximate and opposite
relation to the sea, the name of contra costa (counter
coast, or opposite coast). It presents a varied
character of rugged and broken hills, rolling and
undulating land, and rich alluvial shores,
backed by fertile and wooded ranges, suitable

* Called Chrysopylm (golden gate) en the map, on
the same principle that the harbour of Byzantium
(Constantinople afterwards) was called Chrysoceras
(golden horn). The form of the harbour, and its ad-
vantages for commerce (and that before it became an
entrepot of eastern comm eree), suggested the name of
tho' Greek founders of Byzantium. The form of the
entrance into the bay of Sin Francisco, and its advan-
tages of commerce (Asiatic inclusive), suggest the name
which i 3 given t 9 thio entrance.

for towns, villages, and farms, with which it is be-
beginning to be dotted. A low alluvial bottom land,
several miles in breadth, with occasional open woods
of oak, borders the foot of the mountains around the
southern arm of the bay, terminating on a breadth of
twenty miles in the fertile valley of the St. Joseph, a
narrow plain of rich soil, lying between ranges from
two to three thousand feet high. The valley is
openly wooded with groves of oak, free from under-
brush, and after the spring rains covered with grass.
Taken in connexion with the valley of San Juan,
with which it forms a continuous plain, it is fifty. five
miles long, and one to twenty broad, opening into
smaller valleys among the hills. At the head of the
bay it is twenty miles broad, and about the same at
the southern end, where the soil is beautifully fertile,
covered in summer with four or five varieties of
wild clover several feet high. In many places it
is overgrown with wild mustard, growing ten or
twelve feet high, in almost impenetrable fields,
through which roads are made like lanes. On
both sides the mountains are fertile, wooded, or
covered with grasses and scattered trees. On the
west it is protected from the chilling influence of the
north-west winds by the cuesta de los gatos (wild-cat
ridge), which separates it from the coast. This is a
grassy and timbered mountain, watered with small
streams, and wooded on both sides with many varities
of trees and shrubbery, the heavier forests of pine
and cypress occupying the western slope. Timber
and shingles are now obtained from this mountain,
and one of the recently discovered quicksilver mines
is on the eastern side of the mountain, near the
Pueblo of San Jose. This range terminates on the
south in the Anno Nuevo point of Monterey, by and
on the north declines into a ridge of broken hills about
five miles wide, between the bay and the sea, and
having the town of San Francisco on the bay shore,
near its northern extremity.
Sheltered from the cold winds and fogs of the sea,
and having a soil of remarkable fertility, and the
valley of St. Joseph (San Jose) is capable of pro-
ducing in great perfection many fruits and grain
which do not thrive on the coast in its immediate vi-
cinity. Without taking into consideration the extra-
ordinary yields which have sometimes occurred, the
fair average product of wheat is estimated fiftyfold,
or fifty for one sown. The mission establishments of
Santa Clara and Santa Jose, in the north end of the
valley, were formerly, in the prosperous days, of the
missions, distinguished for the superiority of their
wheat crops.
The slope of alluvial land continues entirely around
the eastern shore of the bay, intersected by small
streams, and offering some points which good landing
and deep water, with advantageous positions between
the sea and interior country, indicate for future
settlement. _ _

The Strait of Carquines, about one mile wide and
eight or ten fathoms deep, connects the San Pablo
and Suisoon bays. Around these bays smaller val-
leys open into the bordering country, and some of
the streams have a short launch navigation, whi▪
ch
serves to convey produce to the bay. Missions and
large farms were established at the head of navigati▪
on
on these streams, which are favourable sites for towns
or villages. The country around Suisoon bay pre-
sents smooth low ridges and rounded hills, clothed
with wild oats, and more or less openly wooded on
their summits. Approaching its northern shores
from Sonoma, it assumes, though in a state of nature,
a cultivated and beautiful appearance. 'Wild oats
cover it in continuous fields, and herds of cattle and
bands of horses are scattered over low hills and partly
isolated ridges, where blue mists and openings among
the abruptly terminating hills indicate the neighbour-
hood of the bay.
The Suisoon is connected with an expansion of
the river formed by the junction of the Sacramento
and San Joaquin, which enter the Francisco Bay in
the same latitude nearly as the mouth of the Tagus at
Lisbon. A delta of twenty-five miles in length,
divided into islands by deep channels, connects the
bay with the valley of the San Joaquin and Sacra-
mento, into the mouths of which the tide flows, and
which enter the bay together as one river.
Such is the bay, and the proximate country and
shores of the bay, of San Francisco. It is not a mere
indentation of the coast, but a little sea to itself, con-
nected with the ocean by a defensible gate, opening
out between seventy and eighty miles to the right
and left, upon a breadth of ten to fifteen, deep
enough for the largest ships, with bold shores suitable
for towns and settlements, and fertile adjacent country
for cultivation. The head of the bay is about forty
miles from the sea, and there commences its connec-
tion with the noble valleys of Sul Joaquin and
Sacramento.
THE GOLD REGION.-THE CLIMATE.
e
The gold region of California is in the Sacramento
annodwitisntterribu intatrihee
s valley, Theclimate
butl
.atthee rainy
o fthe countryseason
and
the dry. The rainy season begins in November,
and continues to the end of February or the begin-
ning of March. The rest of the year is without
rain ; but the streams from the Sierra Nevada afford
all the facilities for irrigation in the heats of July
and August. The whole valley abounds in wild
cattle, wild horses, elks, deer, antelopes, grizzly bears,
partridges, water fowls, salmon, &c., &c. All the
products of the United States, from apples to oranges,
from potatoes to sugar cane, may be produced in the
valley of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. The
climate is remarkably healthy.
Such is the California on the Pacific—the richest,
most picturesque and beautiful region, for its extent,
upon the face of the earth. Such is the El Dorado of
the gold mines; such is the great acquisition of the
late war with Mexico.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, Jan. 10.
(Before Mr. Commissioner LAW.)
IN RE ALEXANDER CARROLL.
_

Mr. CooKE applied for payment of 2061. to an
attorney, who had been engaged in realizing the in-
solvent's property for his creditors. Mr. Carroll had
possessed considerable estates in Ireland, which were
mortgaged to some extent, and which only realized
9,0001., in consequence of the great depreciation of
property in Ireland. The attorney had proceeded to
Dublin to sell the property, and now applied to be
paid out of 9101. deposit-money, which had been paid
into Court.

His HONOUR required some further information
before he granted the application.

NASH V. COLES.

This was an application under the Small Debts
Act. The defendant was in attendance, and an at-
torney appeared for the plaintiff.
Mr. Commissioner Law laid it down in express
terms that both plaintiff and defendant must attend.
He did not make the Act of Parliament, and if any
inconvenience occurred, he could not help it.
The ATTORNEY said he knew all about the case.
Would the Court adjuurn the summons ?
His HoNouß could grant no adjournment. If the
defendant had not appeared he should have committed
him ; and as the plaintiff had not appeared the summons
must be dismissed.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
Mary Ann Smith, between 16 and 17 years of age,
was charged before the Lord Mayor with having at-
tempted to pass two counterfeit pieces.
The town is, as appeared from the statement made
by Robinson Webb, of the City police, to the Lord
Mayor, swarming with the most ingeniously made
counterfeit crown and half-crown pieces, and a num-
ber of shopkeepers, who have long been considered
excellent judges, have been, within the last week,
imposed upon by persons employed to make purchases
with them. It is believed at the Mint, that the base
coin which has thus been making its way has been
electrotyped by some very able hand, and the Lord
Mayor thought it necessary to put the public upon
their guard against such skill, as might be expected
at a time of extraordinary mechanical improvement.
The prisoner went, in the first instance, on the
6th of January, into a public-house in Houndsditch,
and handed a counterfeit crown piece to the proprie-
tor in payment of three-pennyworth of brandy.
The counterfeit was detected, but as the girl did
not appear to be known in the character of a
smasher, or to have any more bad money, she was
allowed to depart. The landlord gave the bad coin
to Webb, who followed the prisoner from professional
instinct, which proved to be correct, for she went
into the shop of a perfumer in the Minories, and,
asking for a pot of bear's grease, tendered another
counterfeit five shilling piece, the counterpart of that
which she had unsuccessfully tried upon the publi-
can. The perfumer had bad so many lessons upon
the subject, from people of all kinds (as he said), that
he was obliged to be a judge, and he gave the prisoner
into custody, being determined to prosecute in every
case of the sort.
The prisoner said her poverty had placed her in a
condition wnich prevented her from being very par-
ticular as to the parties from whom she received the
means of support.
The LoaD MAlroit said he should rigorously carry
out the law in all cases of the kind. There might
have been ground for the defence if the one instance
had not been followed up by the other.—Committed.
Alexander Ingram was charged with having picked
the pocket of Mrs. Elizabeth Larman, on Sunday
evening.
Robert Lee, a City policeman, who is employed
frequently'in watching the well-dressed thieves who
are in the habit of mixing with the congregation in
the Chapel in Bislsopsgate-street, turned several of the
fraternity away from that place of warship on Sunday
evening, soon after which the prisoner was given into
custody for having robbed a lady who had just come
from divine service. It happened that a Mr. Wagstaff
and his wife, as they were walking along in Bishops.
gate-street, at eight o'clock, observed the prisoner
whip the purse out of Mrs. Larman's pocket. Ilr.
Wagstaff immediately collared the prisoner, who
made a bard struggle to escape, and no doubt flung