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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868,

BY TITUS FEY CRONISE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the

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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.

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Hence it is desirable to collate in one volume a reliable statement of the salient facts concerning a region of so much interest; to make such a compilation as will serve as a magazine for the use of all who have occasion to write or speak about California, and which, when drawn upon by journalists abroad for popular articles, will disseminate correct information and ideas. where these are most needed and will have the most beneficial effect. While this work has been prepared in a spirit of natural pride, everything like exaggeration has been guarded against. The material facts are set forth with plain speech, and often with statistical brevity-the reader being left, in most cases, to draw his own conclusions. The grand aim has been to give full and correct information-not to argue or commend.

Those who are most anxious for the rapid peopling and development of the State should desire no more than the accomplishment of this aim, which must supply the most effective of all arguments-those derived from the irrefutable logic of facts.

In pursuance of the ideas above set forth, the author has drawn upon every reliable source of information; has employed the best ability in original researches, and has collated a large amount of valuable matter not before printed. The whole material in the book, which embraces over 700 imperial octavo pages, has been gathered and written within a year-much of it within a few weeks of publication; so that the very latest official and other data have been availed of to make each department as fresh and complete as possible. The author has been assisted by a corps of specially qualified gentlemen, who have established reputations as statisticians, scientists, and writers on subjects of practical and economical interest, and most of whom have brought to this work the best results of years of experience and observation.

The division of the work comprises a variety of subjects, some of which may be mentioned here to afford an idea of the scope of the book: History, 70 pages; Geography, 20 pages; Description and Statistics of the Counties, separately, 237; Climate, 21; Agriculture, 43; Geology, 37; Zoology, 67 ; Flora, 27; Mining and Metallurgical Processes, 34; Mines and Mining, 34; Manufactures, 47; San Francisco, 23. Among the miscellaneous topics treated are the following: Immigration; Population; Literature; Educational Matters; Railroads; Petroleum; Shipbuilding; Telegraphs; City aud County Finances; U. S. Branch Mint, etc.

A very brief review of the more striking facts referring to California

will be enough to satisfy those who may wonder at such an expenditure of literary labor upon our State, that it is entirely justified.

California's seven hundred miles of length, by about two hundred of width, embraces the same nine degrees of latitude which, on the Atlantic side of the continent, include the extensive and populous country stretching from Charleston, S. C., to Plymouth, Mass., a region occupied by portions of ten or twelve States. Within these limits, is an area of nearly 160,000 square miles-greater than the combined area of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, or that of Great Britain and Ireland, with several minor German States thrown in. The outline of this great State on the map resembles that of an oblong trough, the Coast Range on the westward, or ocean side, and the Sierra Nevada on the east, with their interlocking extremities forming the rim, and enclosing a series of level valleys remarkable for their fertility, once basins of water, salt or fresh, now filled with the washings of uncounted years, but still subject to occasional partial floods. The mountain walls themselves are broken into innumerable smaller valleys, level like the others, those in the Coast Range being the largest and loveliest, and only slightly elevated above the ocean, those of the Sierra Nevada, and especially at the sources of its streams, and between its crest of double summits, attaining an elevation of from 3,000 to 7,000 feet, and enclosing charming lakes.

Although this State reaches to the latitude of Plymouth bay on the north, the climate; for its whole length, is as mild as that of the regions near the tropics; half the months are rainless; snow and ice are almost strangers, except in the high altitudes; there are fully 200 cloudless days, every year; roses bloom in the open air of the valleys through all seasons; the grape grows at an altitude of 3,000 feet with Mediterranean luxuriance ; the orange, the fig, and the olive flourish as in their native climes; yet, there is enough variety of climate and soil to include all the products of the northern temperate zone, with those of a semi-tropical character. The great valleys of the interior yield an average of 20 to 35 bushels of wheat per acre; crops of 60 bushels are not uncommon, while as high as 80 bushels have been known on virgin soil under the most favorable circumstances. The farmer loses less time here than in any other portion of the United States, or in any country of Europe.

It is remarkable that with these genial characteristics blends some of the grandest mountain scenery in the world. The Sierra Nevada contains

the highest peaks known in North America. In its northern portion stands Mount Shasta, 14,440 feet high, and towering seven thousand feet above all surrounding peaks. In its southern portion, however, where the main chain attains its greatest general height, Mount Whitney rises about 15,000 feet, and is surrounded by a close congregation of 100 peaks, which are all above 13,000 feet, while the embracing region, for 300 square miles, has an elevation of 8,000 feet. Beside these figures the Alps become inferior. The Yosemite gorge has a world-wide celebrity for its granite walls, which rise perpendicularly as high as 4,400 feet, and over which tumble river currents that break in foam on the blue air, or sway in the breeze like veils of lace. In this splendid range occur those gold deposits, the most extensive ever known, which have yielded in twenty years $850,000,000, and are still yielding over 37 per cent. of the whole annual gold product of the world, or 10 per cent. more than Australia. In this range, or its offshoots, are also found mines of silver, copper, iron and coal, with smaller quantities of numerous other metals and minerals. Here are also the finest coniferous forests of America, including several groves of the largest and oldest trees in the world. More than all this, a large portion of the Sierra Nevada, rugged as it might seem to be from this description, is well adapted to cultivation and settlement; its lower ridges, its depressions and foot-hills, having a productive soil, and being accessible by good wagon roads, in some places by railroads already built or projected, while the mining communities furnish good markets. Agriculture in the mountain districts is becoming a striking feature of the industry of the State, and it is believed that for grape and fruit raising the high lands will hereafter be generally preferred. Many of these remarks are also true of the Coast Range, where mountains 3,000 feet high are often clothed to their summits with a thick growth of wild oats, which furnishes excellent pasture and hay; where the valleys are rich and picturesque, and where quicksilver, salt, sulphur, borax, and splendid redwood timber are found in abundance.

When such facts as the foregoing are recalled, it would seem strange that California hardly increased its population for many years, if we did not reflect how remote and isolated it has been from the great hives of the East, how little has been known abroad about its best qualities, and how fatal were the early vagabond mining methods and habits to permanent prosperity. Yet, for a community never exceeding from 400,000 to 500,000, all told, scattered over an area large enough to support 30,000,000, and

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