Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-07

Suld, dll Ille way holI S"PS ~ ANA>t~' "'
the extreme southern point to where the
Colorado river, flowing down through Ari-
zona and emptying its yellow tide into the
Sea Of Cortez, marks its northern limit, is,
with few exceptions, high, rocky and
precipitous, the mountains rising abruptly
close to the waters edge.
Strange to say the depth is generally
much greater on the gulf than on the Pa
cifc side; and though the winds are al
ways higher on the eastern waters, and
local cyclones and tremendous hurricanes
sometimes occur, there are many little
harbors and sheltered coves in which YES
sells may find protection.
During the greater part of the year the
weather along shore is all that could be
desired, ocean breezes tempering the fervor
of the tropic sun, and cool nights succeed
ing the warm days. OF course, there are two
distincts seasons, the wet and the dry; but
comparatively little rain falls during the
former its scarcity being partially COM
pensated for by extremely heavy dews
The destructive and much-dreaded hmri-
canes called
Los CoRDoNAZos DE SAN FRANCISCO
because they invariably occur during the
feast days of St. Francis, between the 1st
and the 5th of October), are fortunately of
short duration, but often of such violence
that nothing can withstand them. A YES
sci surprised by one in a roadstead is sure
to founder at her anchors, or to break from
her moorings and be drawn ashore; conse-
quentlY sharp lookout is maintained all
through the month of disaster, and at the
smallest sign of comming cOrdonzo every
ship puts out to sea or scuds into the ofIing.
Yet, despite all precautions, wrecks are
added every year to the hundreds that al
ready strew the desolate shores, and men
go down to swell the skeleton population
of the choral-paved cities below.
The numerous gulf islands, like the
nearby coasts, are generally barren and
forbidding with few notable exceptions
Among the latter may be mentioned San
Josef-a big island of volcanic origin,
seventeen miles long, with an average
breadth of four miles-which is covered
with richest vegetation, even to the tops
of its highest peaks, some of which rise
sharply 1000 feet above the sea. 1t is
uninhabited, yet much frequented by
hunters, because its numerous deep drroyos,
or ravines, are the home of immense herds
of deer and antelopes
On this island the palma christi, or castor
bean, grows to great tree, with a woody
trunk. Here also the una de cato, or cats-claw
tree, abounds-a leguminous tree, whose
branches bristle with curved thorns closely
resembling cats claws, and whose wood is
very firm and durable, susceptible of
polish fully as fine and much more beauti-
ful than that of rosewood.
Not great way from this island, on the
adjacent peninsula, is the once famous Dis
trict of Comondu, from which point roads
run over the Sierra de la Giganta, south
ward toward Loreto, and northward to
Muleie, seventy miles distant The road
or rather the trail-that leads to the
capitol, looks impossible even to mountain
goats, zig-zagging up the almost perpen-
dicular faces Of sheer cliffs. But it is often
traversed, for at the foot of La Giganta
there nearly 5000 feet, is the celebrated
copper mine of FL Sance, said to be won
derfully rich, but at present unworked.
Comondu is the site Of an ancient mission,
and its now ruined church was once the
finest in the two CALIFORNIA;. Most of the
houses in the melancholy little village
that clusters around it are constructed of
cut and polished stones-each a monument
to departed glory; while the remaining
habitations - of wild bamboo, lightly
thatched with long, feathery palm leaves
are more cheerful and picturesque, if
less pretentious. The principal product of
this region is pdaoche (the native sugar.,
and the exports include wine, fruits and
deer skins from the neighboring islands.
The little valley of Comondu is not more
than six miles long, by quarter Of mile
wide, but it is extremely fertile and in
high state Of cultivation, its population
numbering about one Thousand. At the
head of the valley is a remarkable canyon
cut in solid lava, 10 feet deep and with
perpendicular sides. Through it runs
fine stream of perennial water which af-
fords an abundant supply to the valley and
villagers Not far from this place is
A BIG SALT POND
That deserves especial mention. 1t lies
near the head of Salinas Bay, separated
from the sea only by narrow shingle
beach, over which the water never flows.
The lake, or pond, is mile and half
long, by a mile wide, and although there
is no perceptible communication with the
sea, its water rises and falls regularly with
the tide. The supply of perfectly pure
salt seems inexhaustible, for what is taken
from the pond in one week is fully repro
duced in the next. 1t is precipitated in
the form of pure crystals, and has only to
be raked from the bottom, packed and
shipped to San Francisco-where it is
ground, and without any publication what
ever is sold as the finest table salt. A rail
way connects this lake with the landing
place at Salinas Bay; and on the shingle
beach that intervenes is a small village.
At the top Of a high cliff of reddish
rock near by-at place called Perico
("Parrot') Point, because its shape re-
sembles parrots beak-is a natural cave
of enormous proportions, to which all the
natives ofthe section resort en- mdSse during
thesummer months, not so much to avoid the
heat as to escape the pestiferous gnats and
mosquitoes. They make prolonged pic
mic Of it subsisting chiefly upon the long
shclled oysters, turtles, shrimps, and fish
that abound, eked out with the eggs and
flesh of numberless sea birds.
Then there is Razu Island, famed for its
valuable deposits of so-called guano, which
is not guano at all-igneous rock, which
has undergone chemical change by the
action upon it of the phosphate and am
monia contained in the excrement of birds.
This suriaee-dust is collected in bags and
shipped, the secondary layer being full of
"clinkers," which require to be crushed
before using. These clinkers are much
richer in phosphates than the pulverized
guano, and are more easily gathered and
shipped. Sea-gulls frequent the island in
such numbers that they literally crowd
the ground. A company of Americans
have been working the deposit for several
years, and during the first two seasons
they shipped more than 10000 tons, prin-
cipally to European ports.
Perhaps the strangest island of all is