1,000,000 acres of which are mountainous, less than 200,000 being fit for agricultural purposes, but nearly the entire county is adapted for grazing, to which most of it is applied. Only 12,000 acres of land were under cultivation in 1867. The population of the county does not exceed 3,500, of whom nearly 1,200 are children under fifteen years of age. Three-fourths of the entire number are Mexicans and native Californians. The greater portion of the land being held by virtue of Mexican grants, in large ranchos, which are mainly devoted to cattle and sheep raising, prevents the development of the resources of the county. There are only three small towns in it, with but indifferent roads to connect them. One good stage road, from Monterey, passes through the county to Santa Barbara. San Luis Obispo, the county seat, has a population of about one thousand; San Miguel, distant forty-one miles, has one hundred and fifty inhabitants; San Simeon, thirty-seven miles northwest, has two hundred inhabitants; all the rest of the population are scattered throughout the mountains and valleys.

The valley of San Luis Obispo, on which the mission that gives name to the town and county is situated, extends in a nearly northwest and southeast direction from Estero bay to the Arroyo Grande, in the Santa Lucia mountains, a distance of nearly twenty miles, and is from three to five miles wide. The Cañadas de los Osas and de las Piedras branch from this valley-the greater portion of which is good agricultural land.

A range of mountains, which are nearly two thousand three hundred feet high on the north, but decrease to about one thousand feet where they unite with the Santa Lucia range, a little south of the Arroyo Grande, extends from the coast line and forms a wide, funnelshaped reservoir for the sea breeze, which, passing through to the low hills further inland, materially influences the climate and vegetation of this county. The San Luis Obispo creek, which flows through a greater portion of the valley, empties into the bay below the port of San Luis Obispo. The town is situated nine miles inland in a small valley, surrounded by low hills, between the Coast Range and the sea.

The Santa Marguerita valley is a broad plateau on the northeastern side of the Santa Lucia mountains, about twenty miles northeast of San Luis Obispo. This extensive plateau is nearly twelve hundred feet above the sea, and much more thickly timbered than the lower valleys. Oak, pine, manzanita, and other trees peculiar to the California Alpine regions, grow here to perfection, showing that there is more moisture in the air than in the lower districts. A branch of the Salinas river passes through this valley.

The Salinas valley is another extensive agricultural district. The main branch of the Salinas river, which has its source among the southeastern peaks of the Santa Lucia, flows through this valley for a distance of twenty-five to thirty miles, when it enters Monterey county. There is some good land along this great valley and in others which branch from it to the east and west.

On the south side of the Santa Lucia range of mountains, the temperature is more than ten degrees warmer than it is on the north. The effect of this difference is seen in the vegetation; the grasses are green and fresh on the south side for more than a month after those on the north side are dried and withered. This is due to the form of the San Luis Obispo valley, already mentioned.

The Paso Robles, is the name of a very large rancho on the eastern slope of the Santa Lucia mountains, about twenty miles north of San Luis Obispo. This rancho embraces a fine level plain containing nearly ten square miles, thickly studded with magnificent live oaks. Being quite free from underbrush, during the spring, when the grass is green, it has the appearance of a splendid park. Near the ranch house, or hotel, are the Paso Robles springs. Those nearest the house are almost scalding hot; about a mile to the north is one of icy coldness, but, like the hot ones, highly charged with sulphur. A short distance from these is a mud spring which has an aperture nearly two feet in diameter through which flows a stream of hot, thick, liquid, black, slimy mud, which is said to be effective in the cure of rheumatism. Hot mineral springs exist at several other localities in this county. There are a number of other valleys connected with the great valley of the Cuyama, extending along the southern border of the county.

With a larger population, and greater facilities for sending the products of the land to a market, the importance of this county might be materially increased. Its present exports consist of hides and wool. Cattle, horses, hogs and sheep are its staple products, but grain, fruits, and vegetables, are raised in sufficient quantities for home consumption-transportation being too expensive to send any of them to

market.

In 1863, considerable excitement was created by the discovery of a deposit of cinnabar in the dividing ridge of the Santa Lucia mountains, about fifteen miles from San Simeon bay. Deposits of copper ore have been found in the Coast Range in several localities, and gold and silver have also been discovered in the mountains in the eastern portion

of the county. None of the mineral resources of the county have been developed.

KERN COUNTY.

This county was organized in 1866. It comprises portions of the Sierra Nevada, the Coast Range, the central valley between them, and of the desert-valley lying east of the Sierras, and contains nearly two thirds of the territory previously included in Tulare county. But for its somewhat inaccessible position-walled in by lofty mountains at all points, except the north-Kern would soon become one of the most important of the interior counties. It contains valuable gold mines, both quartz and placer, large deposits of salt, sulphur, petroleum and other minerals; fine timber, good agricultural lands, which are well watered by numerous streams that flow from the mountains, and a large extent of grazing country. It is bounded on the north by Tulare; east, by San Bernardino; south, by Los Angeles; and west, by San Luis Obispo. It comprises about 1,500,000 acres, nearly one half of which is adapted for agricultural and grazing purposes, although only fifteen thousand acres were under cultivation in the summer of 1867. Want of roads, distance from market, a sparse population-there being less than 3,500 in the entire county-causes farming to be less attended to than mining and sheep raising.

From Fort Tejon, on the southern extremity of the county, to the Kern river, a distance of about forty miles along the western border, the county, for about ten miles from the Coast Range, is covered with salt marshes, brine, and petroleum springs, which, in a locality more favored with roads, would be valuable.

About ten miles from the mouth of the Cañada de las Uvas, which heads near the fort, there are numerous salt springs, where considerable quantities of that mineral are manufactured. The petroleum and asphaltum deposits extend from the San Emidio cañon, on the eastern corner of Santa Barbara county, nearly forty miles to the north, to Buena Vista lake, (so named by the Spaniards in 1806,) a sheet of alkaline water about seven miles long and two miles wide. The most extensive of these deposits, is about eighteen miles south-east of the lake. At this point, there is one spring of maltha, or tarry petroleum, nearly an acre in extent, in the center of which the viscid material is constantly agitated by the escape of gas from below. Around the edge of this pool, the maltha has hardened into stony asphaltum, in which are the remains of various kinds of beasts, birds, and reptiles, whose feet had touched the sticky mass, from which they could not ex

tricate themselves. Works were erected at this place, in 1864, to distil oil for the San Francisco market. The company made several thousand gallons of good oil, but it cost more to send it to market than oil could be procured for from the Eastern States. This long belt of oilsprings lies parallel to those on the coast line in Santa Barbara county, from which they are separated by the coast ranges.

Around the great plain which forms the center of this county, on all sides except the north, are ranges of exceedingly lofty mountains, from eight thousand to ten thousand feet high-the buttresses of the Sierra Nevada, and spurs of the Coast Range, projecting in some places nearly across the plain. There is only one pass over these mountains to the west-the Paso Robles, four thousand eight hundred feet high. On the south is the Tejon pass, five thousand two hundred and eighty-five feet above the sea level. The higher peaks of these mountains are covered with snow during the winter and spring. The subordinate ranges are well timbered with oak, pine and fir.

The San Emidio cañon, about twenty miles west of the Canada de las Uvas, which heads between Mount Pinos and Mount El Dorado, two of the highest peaks in the southern division of the Coast Range, nearly 8,000 feet high, enters this plain on the south-west. Its waters pass through a gorge nearly 2,000 feet deep, cut in beds of sand and gravel, which form terraces several miles broad on the top, showing how much the land of this portion of the coast has been elevated within the present geological era.

Nearly all of the western portion of the county is valueless, for agricultural purposes. On the south and east, the low hills, and many of the mountains, are covered with a luxuriant crop of grasses and shrubbery.

Bounding the salt plain on the east, is a spur of the Sierra Nevada called the Te-hatch-ay-pah mountains, which is nearly 8,000 feet high. The pass over these mountains is upwards of 4,000 feet above the sea level. To the east of this spur, is a fine, fertile, well-timbered valley, of the same name, about eight miles in length by three miles in width, completely surrounded by mountains from 7,000 to 8,000 feet high. It contains a small lake of extremely salt water from which quantities of fine salt are manufactured by solar evaporation-one hundred tons. having been thus obtained in 1867. The stage road between Los Angeles and Owens' valley, Inyo county, passes through this beautiful place. To the north of this mountain spur, is Joe Walker's valley, named in honor of the first settler in the county, who arrived in 1835. This valley, like that just described, is surrounded by lofty moun

tains. It contains about ten square miles of excellent land, which yields from forty to sixty bushels of wheat, or from fifty to sixty bushels of corn, or sixty bushels of barley to the acre. All kinds of vegetables and hardy fruits grow luxuriantly. The hills there is an abundant supply of pure water. There are quite a number of such valleys in various parts of the county.

are well timbered, and

The valley of the south fork of the Kern river, about eight miles north of Havilah, the county seat, is one of the finest in the county, containing about forty square miles of exceedingly rich soil, well watered and timbered. Linn's valley, Linn's valley, a few miles to the south, is another beautiful place for a thrifty community. About forty families have settled in this valley within the past three years, who cultivate about two thousand acres. The climate of this valley is very agreeable-scarcely ever exceeding 90° during the summer or 50° during the winter. A grist and saw mill were erected here during 1867.

The hills and rivers along the entire eastern and northern portion of the county are rich in auriferous quartz and placer gold, which give employment to nearly all the population.

Kern river, from which the county derives its name is a considerable stream that passes nearly across it from east to west, entering it near Walker's pass on the east, and emptying into Goose lake at the base of the Coast Range on the west, receiving numerous tributaries, and watering an extensive agricultural district in its progress. This fine river was called the Rio Bravo by the Mexicans. Much of the land in this section of the county is well adapted for the cultivation of cotton, and numerous experiments have demonstrated this. Several fields containing from twenty to thirty acres each were planted here in 1865, producing good crops, which were sold for full prices, for use at the Oakland Cotton Mills, but the cost of labor and transportation rendered it less profitable than other crops.

Havilah, named from a place mentioned in Genesis, where the first allusion is made to a land of gold, is the chief town in the county, and contains about eight hundred inhabitants, nearly all of whom are Americans there being very few Mexicans and Europeans.

There are numerous mining districts in the mountains and along the creeks, near which villages have been established, and there are good roads from place to place. Considerable quantities of both placer and quartz gold are obtained, this being the most important mining county in the southern portion of the State. It contains seventeen quartz mills, and about twelve hundred of the inhabitants are engaged in mining.