and many other flowers are perpetually in bloom. All the grain and fruits which grow in other parts of the State, except the orange, olive, fig, etc., flourish here. The vine, however, does not thrive at points below an elevation of seven hundred feet above the sea.

The town of Santa Cruz, the county seat, is situated on the north side of Monterey bay, in a pleasant little nook or bend, formed by a spur of the coast range which projects about two miles into the bay. It is surrounded with high mountains on all sides except the southeast; on this side it is open to the bay, along which there is a stretch of beautiful, pearly white sea-beach. The view from the upper portion of the town, looking south, is magnificent: the waters of the capacious bay, nearly thirty miles wide, are pale blue where deepest, and shade into snowy whiteness as they approach the smooth sand. The town of Monterey, nestled in a similar nook on the opposite shore, looks like a huge flower-garden, the green foliage contrasting finely with the grey granite of the hills that enclose it, while the brown mountains, crested with a dark forest-ridge, form a bold, beautiful border. To the right is the wide expanse of the Pacific ocean stretching to the limits of the horizon, its surface smooth and bright as a mirror, or ruffled into billows by the winds-still grand, under either aspect.

The town is built on lands formerly owned by the old mission of Santa Cruz, (Holy Cross,) founded in 1791, which gives name to the county. Near the ruins of this old building, a handsome Catholic church has been erected. It is Mexican in origin, but has been reconstructed by its American possessors. Only a few of the old adobe buildings remain, and, until quite recently, a double row of beautiful willows, which once formed the fence of the old mission garden, was growing in the center of the main street, but the march of improvement, and the expansion of the town, have caused the destruction of nearly all of them. There are good wharf accommodations, but the harbor is exposed to all winds except the north, which renders it dangerous for vessels during the winter; it is, however, the best harbor in the county.

The site of the town furnishes a notable illustration of the several elevations to which this portion of the coast has been subjected, during a comparatively recent period. It consists of three benches, which are from a mile to two miles wide, and extend through the valley. The first is thirty feet above the level of high water, the second is thirty-four feet higher, and the third is one hundred and ninety-nine feet still higher, showing a total rise of two hundred and sixty-three

feet. The business portion of the town, and most of the gardens and orchards, are on the lowest of these terraces. The old mission, and the tanneries, which form an important interest here, are located on the middle bench. The lime-kilns and several dwellings are on the upper one, from which a railroad to connect with the wharf from this point, is projected. The entire bones of a whale were found, about two years since, on the upper level, near the banks of the Soquel.

Opposite Santa Cruz, on the southern side of the San Lorenzo river, are the ruins of the old Mexican pueblo of Branciforte, which was originated as a substitute for the pueblo of San Francisco. During the past year, nearly one hundred new buildings, chiefly private residences, have been erected in the town, and gas-works have also been constructed.

The San Lorenzo valley, in which this town is located, is about twenty miles in length, running north-west and south-east, in several places narrowing to a mere channel for the river, between high hills; at others, opening into wide plateaus, which are very valuable for agricultural purposes. In this county, the chain of mountains which divides it from Santa Clara is called the Santa Cruz mountains, while that extending to the westward, and forming the blunt peninsula that projects on the south into the bay of Monterey, and on the north into Half-Moon bay, is called the Coast mountains. The head of this valley is only seven miles from the beautiful Santa Clara valley, but the whole of this distance is very mountainous and densely timbered with redwood. Shielded from the unpleasant winds which occasionally blow from the ocean, with a soil almost to the top of the mountains of exceeding richness, and a stream of pure water running through its entire length, capable of turning a large number of mill-wheels, it is not wonderful that it has become the seat of a busy agricultural and manufacturing population.

Pescadero is a flourishing town, about thirty-five miles north-west from Santa Cruz, and only fifty miles from San Francisco. It is located. on both sides of Pescadero creek, near its confluence with the Butano, about a mile from the sea-beach. The New San Francisco Water Company will take their supply from the head of the former creek. The valley in which this charming place is situated, contains about 4,500 acres of extremely fertile land, surrounded by high hills on all sides except the west, to which it opens to the broad expanse of the Pacific ocean. An idea of the quality of the soil in this valley may be formed when it is stated that a large crop of potatoes has been raised on some portions of it, for twelve consecutive years, without manuring.

The famous pebble beach is near this town, where agates, opals, jaspers, carnelians, and other silicious stones, of almost every conceivable variety of color, are found in great abundance, polished with a fine lustre by the smooth sea sand, and the ceaseless motion of the surf. These pebbles are of all sizes, the most beautiful ranging from the size of a pea to a marble, and are of every imaginable shape. Some are as transparent as glass, others only partially so, but marked with variegated bands of red, white, green, and blue. The most abundant are of the various tints of red peculiar to carnelians; occasionally opals are found, as round and nearly as lustrous as pearls-some few are black as jet, others clear amber colored, or pink, like amethysts. Some stones of commercial value are found here; probably as many as twenty tons are collected annually for ornamenting walks, and many are cut, and set in jewelry. The source from whence they are derived is a stratum of coarse, friable sandstone, which skirts the coast for about two miles along the beach, It is only in this vicinity that they are found. Innumerable pebbles are imbedded in this sandstone, in as highly polished a condition as those found on the beach, having doubtless been washed on a similar beach for ages before the present one was formed by the uplifting of the land.

Pescadero contains one of the most enterprising communities in this progressive county. Its residents have built handsome churches, school houses, public buildings, hotels, bridges, wharves and private residences, equal to any town in the State of the same size. The lower hills around the valley afford excellent grazing for large herds of cows, from the milk of which this little town annually makes and exports to San Francisco one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds of cheese, and fifty thousand pounds of butter, both of good quality. The immense "Sanitary cheese," weighing four thousand pounds, five feet six inches in diameter, and twenty-two inches thick, made for the benefit of the "Sanitary Fund," in 1863, which realized several thousand dollars by its exhibition and sale, was made in this little valley. The exports of oak bark, collected from the forests in the higher ranges, furnish another important source of revenue to the place. The lumber business, fairly commenced only a year or two since, has expanded into large proportions, the mountains and cañons being covered with forests of redwood and pine. Pescadero is a favorite resort of pleasure seekers from San Francisco, from which it is only six hours drive over good roads. The scenery and climate in the vicinity are among the finest on the coast. Barley and potatoes are the principal crops raised-from sixty to eighty bushels of the former, and

two hundred and fifty 100-lb sacks of the latter to the acre being not an unusual yield.

For several miles south of Pescadero the coast line presents a bold outline of cliffs, formed of sand, gravel and clay, nearly two hundred feet high, the remains of the old terraces so often referred to, worn by the beating of the waves into little coves and gulches, fringed in many places with a luxuriant growth of shrubs and flowers. There are also several valleys in this vicinity, in which villages have been located, saw mills erected, and the soil cultivated to a considerable extent.

Five miles south from Pescadero is Pigeon Point, so named from having been the scene of the disastrous wreck of the ship Carrier Pigeon, several years since. This is both a whaling station and a flourishing agricultural district, but labors under great disadvantages for lack of a landing place-this part of the coast being very dangerous, and almost inaccessible. Yankee ingenuity, however, surmounts these difficulties, and the place thrives. During 1867 it exported 6,200 sacks of oats; 3,000 sacks of potatoes; 120,000 pounds of butter; 10,500 of cheese; 12,500,000 shingles and nine hundred barrels of whale oil; besides large quantities of other produce the whole of which was shipped in the following manner: The surf breaking nearly six hundred feet from the line of cliffs which skirts the shore, no boats can land, or wharf be built; a hawser is therefore made fast to the rocks beyond the breakers, and to stout posts in the cliff above, at an angle of about thirty degrees. On this hawser are large blocks and tackles, to which the articles for shipment are attached and lowered into boats. ready to receive them. These boats convey them to the vessels, which are compelled to anchor nearly a mile off the shore. Of course, this work cannot be carried on except in fair weather.

Franklin Point, three miles south of Pigeon Point, is another dangerous projection from the coast line. This place is named from the wreck of the Sir John Franklin. The Cora, from Australia, was also wrecked here in 1866. The graves of the crews, and some of the passengers of both vessels, are near the beach.

Four miles south from Point Franklin, is New Years Point, where there is a break in the coast line, and a small indentation affords a harbor for quite a fleet of vessels engaged in the lumber trade. Here, a wharf, seven hundred feet in length, has been constructed on piles, sufficiently high to be above the surf, which occasionally breaks with great fury. Upwards of two million feet of lumber are annually shipped from this wharf. Waddell's mills, an extensive lumbering

establishment, five miles distant, among the redwoods, are connected with this wharf by a railroad.

Watsonville, one of the most thrifty towns in this county, is situated on the north bank of the Pajaro river, where the road to Monterey crosses it. It is five miles from the bay of Monterey, and about twenty miles southeast from Santa Cruz. It was founded in 1853, by J. H. Watson. At present it contains a number of hotels, large stores and factories, several churches and school houses, numerous brick and frame private dwellings, and is the center of considerable trade, having a good shipping port about three miles distant, on the Salinas river, at Elkhorn slough, the Estero de Vallejo of the old Californians. This slough, which is about two hundred and fifty feet wide, has such a circuitous course to the bay that it is nearly ten miles in length, while the distance in a straight line is only four miles.

The climate of this place differs materially from that of Santa Cruz, being located at the mouth of Pajaro gap, in the Gavilan mountains, which causes it to be, frequently shrouded in a dense fog, when Santa Cruz is enjoying the clearest sunshine.

Corallitas, about six miles north from Watsonville, is the center of another important section of the county. The town of the district, which contains nearly one thousand five hundred inhabitants, is situated in a small valley, through which the Corallitas creek flows on its way to the Pajaro. This stream rises to the north between the Lloma Prieto, (black mountain,) three thousand feet high, and Mount Bache, three thousand seven hundred and eighty feet high, (the two highest peaks in this section of the Coast Range,) and after meandering in a very serpentine course for about twelve miles through a country densely timbered with redwood and oak, unites with the Pajaro about a mile north of the town of Watsonville. There are a great number of saw mills and several flouring mills on this creek, which affords the only water power in the southern portion of the county. Nearly one hundred thousand acres of land in this district were sold during 1867, in parcels of forty to two hundred and fifty acres, for farming purposes, at prices ranging from three to thirty dollars per acre.

Soquel is another growing locality. The town of this district is situated on the west side of the Soquel creek, about a mile from the bay of Monterey, and three miles easterly from Santa Cruz. This place was settled in 1845, by John Hames and John Daubinbiss, who reside here still. This creek also rises among the Black mountains, but at some distance from the Corallitas, and after winding among the thick