Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-04-02

branch, named upon the map of Captain Wilkes
Destruction river, which rises in the Sierra Ne
vada and flows for about two hundred miles
with rapid current, through fertile region
into its principal stream. The Jesus Maria
rises amid the heights of the Snowy Mountains
directly South of Cape Mendocio; and flowing
South at an average distance of twenty miles
from the ocean, through region of hills and
rolling plains, heavily covered with forests of
most valuable timber, fall into the bay of San
Francisco
The valuable part of Upper California Is thus
seen to embrace that region of the province
drained by the waters that discharge themselves
at San Francisco, into the Pacific sea. It's SUI
perfcial extent cannot be estimated at less than
10000 square miles, nearly as much as that of
the State of New York, and two-thirds that of
the British Islands. fits beauty and fertility,
all travellers agree in giving most glowing and
enthusiastic descriptions. Perouse, one of the
earliest of its visitants, says that " Its climate
differs little from that of the Southern provn-
ces of France at least, the cold is never so
piercing there, but the heat of Summer is much
more moderate, owing to the continual fogs
which reign there, and which procure loi the
land humidity very favorable to vegetation"
Immediately upon the coast it has been repre-
sened that the sea winds and fogs blast the
foliage of trees in exposed situations but on
leaving the ocean nothing of the kind is witness
ed, and all are alike enchanted with the tounless
fertility and unequalled beauty of the inland re-
gions. The English voyager, Vancouver, who
trayersed this country at an early day. after
speaking of the mountains, " the sides and sum-
mits of which exhibited high degree of uxu-
RANT fertility" says.
" We had not proceeded far, when we enter
ed country | little expected to find in these
regions. For about twenty miles, it could only
be compared to park which had originally been
planted with the true old English oak; the I'M
derwQod, that had probably attained its early
growth, had the appearance of having been
cleared away, and had left the stately lords of
the forest in complete possession Of the soil,
which was covered with luxuriant heritage, and
beautifully diversified with pleasing eminences
and valleys which, with the lofty range of
mountains that bounded the prospect, required
only to be adorned with the. neat habitations of
Industrious people, to produce a scene not infe-
rior to the most studied effect of taste in the
disposal of grounds"
The same traveller was struck with L" the quail
ty, quantity and variety of its excellent produce
tions, not only indigenous to the country, but
appertaining to the temperate, as well as torrid
zone )" and he makes the remark, that not
one species had been sowed or planted, that had
not hourshed and yielded its fruits in album
dance, and of excellent qnaty." Equally ex-
plicit, and of still more authority, is the state
ment of Humboldt:
"New California is as we'll watered and fer
tile, as Old California is hard and stony. The
climate is much more mild than in the same lat
itudes on the Eastern side of the New Cont
nent, (Which includes the Atlantic coast from
Boston to Savannah,) the frequent fogs give Wig
or to vegetation and fertze the SOIL which is
covered with black aud spongy EARTH
Although agriculture, throughout this vast
and fertile region, is of the rudest and most I'M
skillful character, nearly all kinds of grain have
been readily raised In the immediate neigh
borhood of San Francisco Bay the most extraor
binary crops are easily produced. DR.. Marsh
long resident on the banks ofthe Sacramento,
informed Mr.. Farnham that from ten bushels Of
wheat he had known to be harvested a crop of
1869 though he says that the average yield is
from thirty to fifty bushels from one that is sown
This part of this statement is incredible; but
Commodore Wilkes mentions an instance in
which 5000 bushels were harvested from 80
sown; and he places the average crop at so fold.
Il The most moderate of these statements exhibits
degree of fertility seldom found in the most
+ favored regions of the earth. Indian corn is
said to return about ITO fold The potatoe
thrives; hemp, flax, oats, barley, peas, fruits of
all kinds, and indeed all the productions of the
temperate zone, are produced in great album
dance, and with the greatest ease while in the
Southern portion, cotton, tobacco, figs, lemons,
Olives oranges, and especially grapes, seem to
find native and most propitious soil and the
marshes about the mouths of the San Joaquin
and Sacramento, may easily be turned into some
of the richest and most beautiful rice fields in
4 the world.
Here, then, lies upon the Pacific coast, adj
joining our Western border, included between
the parallels which embrace the Southern SEC
tons of the United States, and stretching North
f ward to the Sothcrn boundary of Oregon, re-
gion of country capable of sustaining greater
population than now inhabis the entire American
Union. Traversed, through its entire length and
from its most remote corners, by noble rivers all
concentrating their waters and forming at their
common mouth, the finest harbour perhaps in the
world; Astounding in timber of the best quality
for ship-buildig and all naval purposes, easily
aoated to common point, and that the beautiful
and capacious harbor Of San Francisco; con-
: tanning measureiess water-power, immense agrl-
cultural resources and all the elements which
nature can furnish of national wealth and nation