The central, or mountain division, is very irregular in outline, and averages nearly forty miles in width. It contains extensive tracts of good farming land. The Santa Isabel district, about seventy miles easterly from the town of San Diego, embraces a number of broad valleys, or rather table lands, which lie between the two main ridges of the mountains, at an elevation of three thousand to four thousand feet above the level of the sea. The culminating peak of these ranges, Mount San Jacinto, is five thousand five hundred feet high. This district enjoys a delightful climate. The vine, orange, wheat, and barley, are among its products. It is the best agricultural district in the county.

The mountains are covered with forests of oak, cedar, pine and fir. Gold, silver, copper, and other minerals have been found in many places, in both ranges.

To the east of this mountain division, lies the great Colorado desert, extending to the borders of the State on the south and east. This desert, though treeless and arid for many miles along its northern and western borders, consists of a rich, fertile soil on the south and

It is evidently a delta formed by the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers, which once flowed over it, but have cut a new channel for themselves in another direction, although this desert is still below the level of the waters of the gulf into which they both flow. This curious fact induced Dr. O. M. Wozencraft to entertain the idea that he could reclaim the greater portion of this land by cutting a canal from the Colorado, to irrigate it. This subject was before Congress, in 1858 and 1859, and received favorable action, but the project was never carried out, although it is entirely practicable, and will doubtless be accomplished some day.

This desert, shut off from the benefits of the sea breezes by the high peaks of the Coast Range, which condense all the moisture from the air before it passes their limits, is the hottest place in the State. The thermometer at Fort Yuma, located at its south-east corner, sometimes reaches 122° Fahrenheit, in the shade, during the summer; but this great heat does not affect the health of the inhabitants, or prevent them attending to their affairs.

Great changes have taken place in the topography of this desert district, within the past thirty years, and others are still in progress. In 1840, it was partially submerged by the waters of the Colorado. The New river, through which a portion of these waters now finds its way to the sea, had no existence until that year. A number of large lagoons remained for several years after that inundation. The north

ern portion of this desert is one of the most interesting districts in the State, for observing many of the curious operations of Nature. About sixty miles from Warner's ranch, and a few miles southwest from Dos Palmas, a station on the La Paz road, there is a broad valley, bounded by ranges of hills of hard-baked, red clay, called the Chocolate and Coyote mountains; and in this valley is the dry bed of a lake forty miles in circumference, which is nearly sixty feet below the level of the sea. This great basin is separated from the dry beds of a number of creeks, which appear to have once been connected with it by a level plain, about five miles wide. Nearly in the center of this plain there is a lake of boiling mud, about half a mile in length by about five hundred yards in width. In this curious cauldron the thick, greyish mud is constantly in motion, hissing and bubbling, with jets of boiling water and clouds of sulphurous vapor and steam bursting through the tenacious mud, and rising high in the air with reports often heard a considerable distance. The whole district around this lake appears to be underlaid with this mud, as it trembles under foot, and subterranean noises are heard in all directions. Hot springs and sulphur deposits are numerous for many miles around this lake. In 1867, a large spring of cool, pure water, commenced flowing from a fissure in a high bluff of rocks, a few hundred yards from the station at Dos Palmas, where there had been no water before. There had been no earthquake or unusual subterranean disturbance, to account for such a phenomenon, which is all the more strange from the fact that none of the wells sunk in any part of the desert, contain sweet water: it being always so impregnated with alkali as to be very unpleasant to the taste. The whole section around these springs and mud volcanoes, appears to be gradually rising.

From Warner's ranch, a town located on the eastern side of the Coast Range, near Warner's pass, on the Fort Yuma road, at the western edge of this desert, for about thirty miles south to Vallacito, the country has a less desolate appearance. The coast mountains, covered with timber and chaparral, skirt the desert on its western side, and take from it the monotonous and dreary character which marks the broad, sandy plains beyond this point, where the country is indeed a desert, without a sign of animal or vegetable life, or a drop of water, for nearly sixty miles. This long stretch of hot, shifting, alkaline sand, was a terror to travelers until the Government, in 1850, caused several wells to be sunk at a place since known as Sackett's wells, about forty miles from Vallacito, which furnished a fair supply of water, such as it was, till June, 1867, when a terrible sand-storm

covered the whole country in that vicinity with a bed of sand several inches deep, obliterating the wells and all the landmarks around them.

The shifting sands on this portion of the desert, when disturbed by the tempests which frequently pass over them, are as dangerous to travelers as the fearful siroccos which sweep over the deserts of Arabia, and change the whole appearance of the country in a few hours, obliterating roads and landmarks intended for the guidance of the wayfarer.

Near the boundary-line towards Arizona, after crossing the New river, the appearance of the country changes completely. Although still in the desert district, it is no longer a desert; but the vegetable and animal life are strange in form and habits. Instead of the shifting sand, there is a soil of greyish tint, nearly as hard and compact as brick, covered with a scant crop of short, wiry grass, among which grow an infinite variety of cacti, of all shapes and sizes-from the slender "rat-tail" to great squat lumps as large as nail kegs, and about as handsome in form, all covered with spines and prickles, as if Nature had tried to make them as hateful as possible. The mesquite also grows luxuriantly in this section, giving it a forest-like appearance as compared with the sandy plains. The Indians from Arizona and Lower California, pay this portion of the desert a visit each fall, to collect a winter's supply of the nutritious beans of this tree. Here, too, may be seen swarms of paroquets, orioles, and other birds, of the most brilliant plumage, which aid in giving the whole scene a decidedly tropical character.

The town of San Diego, located near the harbor of the same name, is the oldest settled place in the State. It was established in May, 1769, by the missionaries, when they founded the first California mission-located about six miles inland from the town. San Diego, the Spanish for St. James, the titular saint for this mission, gives his name to the county, town, and bay. It was called Cosoy by the aborigines, of whom many thousands lived on the coast plains when the missionaries arrived there. There are scarcely any there now. The town contains between 300 and 400 inhabitants, a large proportion of whom are Mexicans and native Californians. It is five hundred miles from San Francisco, and one hundred and twenty-five miles from Los Angeles.

About a mile from the old town, and near the bay, is New San Diego, which has been built within a year or two, where the government storehouses and several substantial residences, and a new wharf, have been erected for the accommodation of trade. The California,

Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company are about to erect a wharf and warehouse, to conduct the increasing business of the port.

There has been quite an increase in the number of settlers in the county, during the past year. Several of the old Mexican ranchos, which embraced miles of good land, have been purchased and subdivided among American farmers, who will soon make it produce something more valuable than hides and tallow.

The mission near the old town had the largest and most beautiful church, and buildings, on the coast. They covered several acres, and were surrounded by extensive gardens and orchards, which produced a great variety of fruits and flowers. The old church, now crumbling to ruins, affords evidence of the architectural skill of its reverend builders. Its bells, which for nearly three quarters of a century summoned the Indian to labor and prayer, were taken from the belfry as recently as 1866. The church property at present belongs to the Catholic bishop of the diocese. The old gardens are nearly all destroyed, only a few olive trees remaining to show where they had been.

San Luis el Rey-or, more properly, San Luis Rey de Français, in honor of Louis IX, of France, a warrior in the time of the crusades-is near the harbor of that name on the coast, about forty-six miles north from San Diego. It is located in a beautiful valley, about a mile wide, and twenty-four miles in length, through which passes a permanent stream of water, the San Luis river. The mission of San Luis Rey was located in this valley, at the head of which now stands the town of Pala.

The orange, lemon, lime, citron, walnut, fig, olive, and other tropical fruits, grow to perfection in this valley, as well as wheat, barley, potatoes and corn, but it is only partially under cultivation.

Temecula, about twenty miles north from Pala, is another town of some little importance. It contains about sixty Americans, two hundred Mexicans, and nearly six hundred Indians. It was proposed to establish a reservation at this place for the protection of the Indians, who are more numerous and better behaved here than in any other portion of the State. They live on rancherias, cultivate considerable land, and own many cattle, sheep and horses. This town is located on the bank of the San Marguerita river, on the southern edge of a series of plains extending nearly forty miles to the eastward, which comprise some of the finest grazing lands in the southern portion of the State, being covered with wild oats, clover, and other nutritious grasses, furnishing pasturage for thousands of cattle, horses, and sheep. These plains are watered by numerous lagoons, formed along the beds of

the rivers which do not flow to the sea, except during the winter. Much of this fine land is owned by Mexicans, in large tracts. Some of these people live in the same style they did before the country became a State. One of these native rancheros, living near Temecula, who owns several leagues of these plains, and has nearly five thousand head of cattle grazing on them, never saves a drop of milk, or makes a pound of butter-these being luxuries in little use here.

Warner's ranch is another small town, about forty-five miles easterly from Temecula.

Fort Yuma, a military post in the extreme southeast corner of the State, has caused a number of settlers to locate in that vicinity, where there are placer gold mines of some importance, in what is known as the Picachto district.

The principal products of the county are cattle, sheep, hides, wool and tallow. The great distance from the central market at San Francisco, and the limited home demand, render it unprofitable to raise the cereals for exportation. Oranges, olives, almonds, raisins and figs, can be cultivated with success in this county. It has a fine climate, rich soil, and a good harbor, and contains gold, silver and copper mines; but its resources are quite undeveloped, for want of population.

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

This is the largest county in the State, containing more than 10,000,000 acres, about three-fourths of which consist of dry, desert valleys, volcanic ranges, and inaccessible mountains, though not wholly without mineral wealth. About 3,000,000 acres are covered by the Coast Range and other mountains, portions of which are valuable for mining, grazing, and lumbering. Much of the finest land in the county is covered by extensive Mexican grants, some of which embrace tracts. of eleven square leagues. These large ranches have been great impediments in the way of settling the southern counties; but within the past year, there has been every opportunity offered to actual settlers, to purchase in subdivisions.

The county, which was not organized until 1854, (prior to this, it formed part of Los Angeles county,) takes its name from a mission founded by an early Spanish settler named Lugos, who once owned the whole of the San Bernardino valley, cultivating it chiefly by Indian labor. This mission stands about ten miles southeast of the old town of San Bernardino.

The county is bounded on the north by Inyo county, and the State of Nevada; on the east by the Colorado river; on the south, by San