THE NATURAL WEALTH с OF CALIFORNIA COMPRISING EARLY HISTORY; GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, AND SCENERY; CLIMATE; AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCIAL CESSES; MANUFACTURES; STEAMSHIP LINES, RAILROADS, AND COMMERCE; IMMIGRATION, POPULATION AND SOCIETY; EDUCATIONAL IN- STITUTIONS AND LITERATURE; TOGETHER WITH A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EACH COUNTY; ITS TOPOGRAPHY, SCENERY, CITIES AND TOWNS, AGRICULTURAL VARIED PRODUCTIONS. BY TITUS FEY CRONISE. SAN FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCROFT & COMPANY. 1868. INTRODUCTORY. THE Publishers present this work as the most recent, comprehensive, and elaborate treatise upon the history, geography, geology, natural history, climate, population, wealth, industry, products, and resources of California. Unusual pains have been taken to insure its acceptance as a work not alone of passing interest, but as a standard authority on all the subjects it embraces. There is a strong demand for such an authority, both for the purposes of local information and reference, and for citation and general use abroad, where, for many reasons, much attention has recently been attracted to our State. The successful establishment of mail steam communication with Japan and China; the acquisition of Alaska; the near completion of the Pacific railroad; the remarkable increase of our agricultural products and exports, enabling California to compete profitably with the foremost wheat countries in the markets of Europe, are circumstances that have, within the past twelve months, caused more particular inquiry to be made concerning the State than ever before. It is no longer looked upon as the isolated abode of a nomadic and somewhat lawless community, absorbed mainly in gold seeking, and generally indifferent to the healthy pursuits and noble concerns of life-but as a well-ordered commonwealth, prolific in natural resources and capacities beyond all its sisters; favored by a delightful climate; advancing in substantial prosperity; attesting the fertility of its soil by a wheat crop approximating in value its yield of gold; and rivaling two zones in the variety of its other products. It is seen to be the nucleus of a great empire on the Pacific, already adjoined by States and Territories of remarkable characteristics, and laying a train of causes that will some day shift the currents of commercial and monetary exchange. |