An exploring party, who visited it in January, 1865, the coolest season of the year, found the temperature 90° Fahrenheit. When there is no breeze through the long cañon the air becomes so dense that respiration is painful and difficult. During the spring terrible gales of wind blow through this cañon in opposite directions, filling the air with salt, gravel, and sand, in clouds as black as coal smoke. Altogether it is as dismal and dreary a place as can be imagined. The Telescope mining district is located on the west side of this valley. There is gold in the gravel thereabouts, but there is no water to work it, or to drink.

The southwest corner of the county presents a much more inviting aspect. The finest portion of its agricultural lands is contained within this district. San Bernardino valley is located here. This beautiful valley is fifty miles in length by twenty miles in breadth, bounded on the east, north, and south by an amphitheatre of lofty mountains, covered with timber. From these mountains flow innumerable streams of water, which cause the whole valley to appear like a vast garden by the willow, sycamore, and other trees, that grow along their banks. The Santa Ana, quite a large stream, passes through the entire length of this valley. As may be readily conceived, a region thus sheltered and watered must have a delightful climate. Two crops of grain are gathered regularly in this district. The alfalfa grass, which is a perennial here, is cut six or eight times each year. Most kinds of fruit and grain flourish here. There are many extensive vineyards and orchards, the products of which would be of great value if they could be sent to market. The surrounding mountains contain abundance of pine, cedar, hemlock, maple, and other kinds of timber. There are only two grist mills and five saw mills in the entire county, and these are located in this district. The present town of San Bernardino, in this valley, on the banks of the Santa Ana, was laid out by the Mormons in 1847, on the same plan as Great Salt Lake City. The streets are at right angles, and each lot contains from one to five acres, so that every house is surrounded with a garden, orchard, and cornfield. The town consequently extends over a large space. Nearly all the Mormons abandoned the place in 1856, and went to Salt Lake, but a few still reside here, who carried on quite an extensive trade with Utah for several years. South of this valley, to the line of San Diego county, there are extensive plains and rolling hills, on which are many farms and ranchos in a high state of cultivation. A canal, or zanja, some ten miles in length, constructed by the Lugos, years before the State was formed, supplies a portion of this district with water for irri

gation. All kinds of grain, and many varieties of fruit, are raised in perfection.

On the north side of the San Bernardino mountains, and about thirty-five miles from the town, in a wide plateau, or broad valley, are Holcombe and Bear valleys, which, from 1860 until 1862, attracted considerable attention. The gold mines, both placer and quartz, found here, yielded well for a time, after which operations were suspended, though within the past few months arrangements have been made to re-open these mines. Important discoveries of placer gold, or auriferous gravel, have been made on Lytle creek, about ten miles west from San Bernardino, towards the Los Angeles county line, near the Cajon pass, which is thought to be a rich gold mining district. Near the Morango pass, about thirty miles southeast from Holcombe valley, there are large deposits of copper ore. On the Santa Ana river, near the county seat, there are large beds of marble and alabaster. The county jail is built of this marble, and all the lime used in the county is made from it. The Temescal tin mines, discovered in 1854, (the only body of the ores of this metal found in situ in the State), are located in the Temescal mountains, about forty miles southerly from San Bernardino.

There is but one town, and few good roads in the county. The whole population does not exceed five thousand eight hundred. Quite an addition to the former number was made during the past year by settlers who have purchased lands, which are very cheap in this county.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

This, the most important of the southern counties, is bounded on the north by Kern; by Santa Barbara, and the Pacific Ocean, on the west; the Pacific Ocean, on the south; and by San Bernardino on the east. In outline its boundaries are exceedingly irregular. It comprises about 2,000,000 acres, nearly two-thirds of which are fit for cultivation or for grazing purposes. It contains about 14,000 inhabitants. Los Angeles is more progressive than either of the other southern counties. A number of ditches for irrigating purposes have been cut in various districts within the past year or two, which have caused large tracts of rich land to be brought under cultivation that otherwise were only fit for pasturage.

The Sierra Madre mountains pass through the county in a northwest and southeast direction, from thirty to fifty miles from the sea, not only forming the divide of the waters, but separating the fertile plains and valleys sloping towards the ocean, from the sterile, hot and

sandy desert, which stretches eastward towards the Colorado river. The Santa Susana mountains, a branch of the Coast Range, also cross the county, in a nearly east and west direction. Near Fort Tejon, in the northwestern portion of the county, at a point where the boundaries of Tulare, Kern, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties converge, the Santa Inez and San Rafael mountains, of the Coast Range, after traversing Santa Barbara county, unite with the Sierra Nevada, and form a great cluster of peaks and deep cañons. The line of contact between the Coast Range and Sierra Nevada is traced for many miles, running east or southeast, being marked by immense beds of dark colored, compact lava, from two hundred to five hundred feet deep.

The shore line of the county extends from Point Duma to Point San Mateo, about ninety miles, presenting a series of low bluffs and long sandy beaches. The bay of San Pedro forms the only good harbor there is in the county. On the shores of this bay are located the old and new towns of San Pedro and Wilmington, both of which are shipping ports of some importance.

The principal rivers in the county are the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and Santa Ana, which flow nearly all the year and connect with the ocean. There are a number of others which distribute water through the interior during the wet season, but rarely reach to the sea, and are generally dry during the summer.

The section of the county on the southwest of the Coast Range forms a series of plains and valleys which extend from Los Angeles plain to San Diego county, a distance of nearly fifty miles in length, by an average of nearly twenty miles in width, and comprise the most beautiful portion of the southern coast. The lower plain, containing the valleys of Los Angeles, San Pedro, and Anaheim, skirts the ocean, along which its border is from five to forty feet above the level of high tide, fringed, in some places, by a narrow, sandy beach. From the sea line it slopes gradually upward to the base of the foot hills, twenty-five to forty miles inland. The upper plain, or plateau, contains the San Fernando, San Bernardino, Cocomongo, Jurapa, and a number of other extensive valleys.

The soil and climate of the lower plains are remarkably uniform. The soil is a light brown, sandy loam, rich in vegetable matter, slightly more clayey near the bottom of hollows, and more gravelly on the dividing ridges between such hollows, but exceedingly fertile everywhere. The sea breeze, which springs up from the northwest between eight and ten o'clock A. M., during the summer, moderates the temperature and

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supplies sufficient moisture to prevent the heat being very oppressive. In the rainy season, which commences sometimes as early as November, never later than January, these plains are covered with wild grasses, oats and clover, even to the roads, if they are not well traveled. At this season, a ride over them presents some of the most beautiful views of southern California scenery. On the one hand are the vineyards, orange groves, and apple orchards, clothed in the variegated tints of autumn, and backed by brown mountain ranges, tipped on their crests with silvery snow, or fringed with dark pines, forming a serrated edge against the bright blue sky, while over the sloping plain all is green and brilliant as a bed of emeralds. On the other hand, the placid ocean, pale azure in tint, just rippled on its surface by a gentle breeze, dotted here and there with the white sail of some coasting craft, and margined by the vividly green plain, forms a series of pictures that a Bierstadt might well delight to copy.

The equable temperature and rich soil of this section of Los Angeles county, render it one of the most attractive portions of Southern California. Here the grape, of all varieties, from all countries, thrives luxuriantly. The orange, lemon, fig, and other semi-tropical fruits, also grow to perfection, while the facilities for irrigation enable the farmer to raise heavy crops of wheat, barley, corn, and all the vegetables.

The

The City of Los Angeles (formerly Pueblo de Los Angeles-City of the Angels) is situated in a narrow valley, about three fourths of a mile wide, formed on the west by low hills which extend from the Santa Monica mountains, about forty miles distant, and by the rising land of the San Gabriel plain on the east, through which the Los Angeles river winds on its way to the sea, supplying plenty of water to innumerable ditches above the town, which are used for irrigating purposes. city, one of the oldest in the State, is about twenty-two miles from the sea shore. The old Mexican portion of it extends up the valley for nearly a mile, forming the two principal streets. The old adobe houses, with flat roofs, covered with asphaltum, or brea, and surrounded by broad verandahs, or high walls, are gradually being supplanted by stores and residences more suited to American ideas of domestic and commercial convenience. Many neat brick dwellings and commodious stores are to be seen in all directions. These, mingling among the old Mexican casas, together with the groves of orange, lemon, olive, lime, fig, pomegranate, peach, apple, and pear, with here and there a towering, feathery palm, and solid cactus fence around a field of wheat or barley, form a strange, but pleasing picture, such as can be seen no

where outside of California. Los Angeles city contains about six thousand inhabitants, more than one half of whom are Americans, who own about three-fourths of all the land in the county, and are rapidly developing its resources. It is proposed to build a railroad from the city to Wilmington, and arrangements have been made to light Los Angeles with gas.

In this county, the semi-tropical fruits are more extensively cultivated than in any other. The following particulars relating to two of the largest orange groves near Los Angeles, will convey an idea of the proportions and nature of this branch of fruit culture. Mr. Wm. Wolfskill, one of the oldest American settlers in the county, has a grove containing 2,000 trees, which have attained an average height of twenty feet. These are about sixteen years old, planted from seedlings, there being no grafted or inoculated trees in the orchard. Their annual product averages 1,500 oranges to each tree. They generally ripen in January, and remain on the tree in a perfect condition for nearly a year, if not sooner picked. Mr. D. B. Wilson has a grove of 1,650 trees, eight years old, some of which bear as many as 4,000, but the entire number will average 1,500 oranges each.

The tuna, or gigantic fruit-bearing cactus, grows here to a very large size, frequently attaining an altitude of fifteen feet, and twenty feet in diameter. This fruit, about the size of a Bartlett pear, grows on the margin of the leaf, from thirty to forty each, and is esteemed a great luxury.

There were 6,000,000 grape vines growing in the vicinity of Los Angeles city, in 1867. The vintage of that year, throughout the county, amounted to 1,500,000 gallons of wine and 100,000 gallons brandy, in addition to which a considerable quantity of the choicest grapes were shipped to San Francisco.

Wilmington, the principal shipping-port of the county, is located on the southern side of the Los Angeles plain, on the northern extremity of San Pedro bay, twenty-two miles from the city of Los Angeles. It was founded in 1858, under the name of New San Pedro, the present name having been adopted in 1863. It now contains a large number of stores and dwellings, and about twelve hundred inhabitants. The water along the shore, being too shallow to admit ordinary sailing vessels to enter the estuary, steamers and lighters have been constructed, which carry from forty to two hundred tons to a very light draft. These are used for loading and unloading vessels at the anchorage. They come up to the wharf, and through a canal which passes into the central part of the town, where the military warehouses