of the county. None of the mineral resources of the county have been developed.

KERN COUNTY.

This county was organized in 1866. It comprises portions of the Sierra Nevada, the Coast Range, the central valley between them, and of the desert-valley lying east of the Sierras, and contains nearly two thirds of the territory previously included in Tulare county. But for its somewhat inaccessible position-walled in by lofty mountains at all points, except the north-Kern would soon become one of the most important of the interior counties. It contains valuable gold mines, both quartz and placer, large deposits of salt, sulphur, petroleum and other minerals; fine timber, good agricultural lands, which are well watered by numerous streams that flow from the mountains, and a large extent of grazing country. It is bounded on the north by Tulare; east, by San Bernardino; south, by Los Angeles; and west, by San Luis Obispo. It comprises about 1,500,000 acres, nearly one half of which is adapted for agricultural and grazing purposes, although only fifteen thousand acres were under cultivation in the summer of 1867. Want of roads, distance from market, a sparse population-there being less than 3,500 in the entire county-causes farming to be less attended to than mining and sheep raising.

From Fort Tejon, on the southern extremity of the county, to the Kern river, a distance of about forty miles along the western border, the county, for about ten miles from the Coast Range, is covered with salt marshes, brine, and petroleum springs, which, in a locality more favored with roads, would be valuable.

About ten miles from the mouth of the Cañada de las Uvas, which heads near the fort, there are numerous salt springs, where considerable quantities of that mineral are manufactured. The petroleum and asphaltum deposits extend from the San Emidio cañon, on the eastern corner of Santa Barbara county, nearly forty miles to the north, to Buena Vista lake, (so named by the Spaniards in 1806,) a sheet of alkaline water about seven miles long and two miles wide. The most extensive of these deposits, is about eighteen miles south-east of the lake. At this point, there is one spring of maltha, or tarry petroleum, nearly an acre in extent, in the center of which the viscid material is constantly agitated by the escape of gas from below. Around the edge of this pool, the maltha has hardened into stony asphaltum, in which are the remains of various kinds of beasts, birds, and reptiles, whose feet had touched the sticky mass, from which they could not ex

tricate themselves. Works were erected at this place, in 1864, to distil oil for the San Francisco market. The company made several thousand gallons of good oil, but it cost more to send it to market than oil could be procured for from the Eastern States. This long belt of oilsprings lies parallel to those on the coast line in Santa Barbara county, from which they are separated by the coast ranges.

Around the great plain which forms the center of this county, on all sides except the north, are ranges of exceedingly lofty mountains, from eight thousand to ten thousand feet high-the buttresses of the Sierra Nevada, and spurs of the Coast Range, projecting in some places nearly across the plain. There is only one pass over these mountains to the west-the Paso Robles, four thousand eight hundred feet high. On the south is the Tejon pass, five thousand two hundred and eighty-five feet above the sea level. The higher peaks of these mountains are covered with snow during the winter and spring. The subordinate ranges are well timbered with oak, pine and fir.

The San Emidio cañon, about twenty miles west of the Canada de las Uvas, which heads between Mount Pinos and Mount El Dorado, two of the highest peaks in the southern division of the Coast Range, nearly 8,000 feet high, enters this plain on the south-west. Its waters pass through a gorge nearly 2,000 feet deep, cut in beds of sand and gravel, which form terraces several miles broad on the top, showing how much the land of this portion of the coast has been elevated within the present geological era.

Nearly all of the western portion of the county is valueless, for agricultural purposes. On the south and east, the low hills, and many of the mountains, are covered with a luxuriant crop of grasses and shrubbery.

Bounding the salt plain on the east, is a spur of the Sierra Nevada called the Te-hatch-ay-pah mountains, which is nearly 8,000 feet high. The pass over these mountains is upwards of 4,000 feet above the sea level. To the east of this spur, is a fine, fertile, well-timbered valley, of the same name, about eight miles in length by three miles in width, completely surrounded by mountains from 7,000 to 8,000 feet high. It contains a small lake of extremely salt water from which quantities of fine salt are manufactured by solar evaporation-one hundred tons. having been thus obtained in 1867. The stage road between Los Angeles and Owens' valley, Inyo county, passes through this beautiful place. To the north of this mountain spur, is Joe Walker's valley, named in honor of the first settler in the county, who arrived in 1835. This valley, like that just described, is surrounded by lofty moun

tains. It contains about ten square miles of excellent land, which yields from forty to sixty bushels of wheat, or from fifty to sixty bushels of corn, or sixty bushels of barley to the acre. All kinds of vegetables and hardy fruits grow luxuriantly. The hills are well timbered, and there is an abundant supply of pure water. There are quite a number of such valleys in various parts of the county.

The valley of the south fork of the Kern river, about eight miles north of Havilah, the county seat, is one of the finest in the county, containing about forty square miles of exceedingly rich soil, well watered and timbered. Linn's valley, a few miles to the south, is another beautiful place for a thrifty community. About forty families have settled in this valley within the past three years, who cultivate about two thousand acres. The climate of this valley is very agreeable-scarcely ever exceeding 90° during the summer or 500 during the winter. A grist and saw mill were erected here during 1867.

The hills and rivers along the entire eastern and northern portion of the county are rich in auriferous quartz and placer gold, which give employment to nearly all the population.

Kern river, from which the county derives its name is a considerable stream that passes nearly across it from east to west, entering it near Walker's pass on the east, and emptying into Goose lake at the base of the Coast Range on the west, receiving numerous tributaries, and watering an extensive agricultural district in its progress. This fine river was called the Rio Bravo by the Mexicans. Much of the land in this section of the county is well adapted for the cultivation of cotton, and numerous experiments have demonstrated this. Several fields containing from twenty to thirty acres each were planted here in 1865, producing good crops, which were sold for full prices, for use at the Oakland Cotton Mills, but the cost of labor and transportation rendered it less profitable than other crops.

Havilah, named from a place mentioned in Genesis, where the first allusion is made to a land of gold, is the chief town in the county, and contains about eight hundred inhabitants, nearly all of whom are Americans—there being very few Mexicans and Europeans.

There are numerous mining districts in the mountains and along the creeks, near which villages have been established, and there are good roads from place to place. Considerable quantities of both placer and quartz gold are obtained, this being the most important mining county in the southern portion of the State. It contains seventeen quartz mills, and about twelve hundred of the inhabitants are engaged in mining.

Kernville is one of the most thriving towns in the county. There are upwards of a dozen important quartz ledges within a mile or two of the place, on several of which extensive mills have been in operation for two or three years-the quartz paying steadily and well.

The valleys and flats are cultivated to an extent sufficient to supply the local demand, but there is only one grist mill in the county. A large number of cattle and sheep are raised, and considerable lumber is cut. There are five saw mills in the county, capable of cutting 30,000 feet per day.

The resources of this county will not be developed until a railroad shall connect the southern counties with San Francisco, the great central market for the coast.

COAST COUNTIES.

MONTEREY COUNTY.

Monterey county is the southernmost of the coast counties, according to the division of the State adopted in describing its topography. It is bounded on the south by the Pacific ocean, and San Luis Obispo county, on the east by Fresno and Merced counties, on the north by Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, on the west by the Pacific ocean. It averages nearly eighty miles in length, by about fifty miles in width, and contains about 2,500,000 acres. Seven hundred thousand acres are good agricultural land-less than fifty thousand of which were under cultivation in the summer of 1867. The greater portion of the county is devoted to cattle and sheep raising, much of the best land being still occupied by the original Mexican grantees or their assigns.

The population, at the close of 1867, is estimated at eight thousand five hundred, of whom nearly two thousand five hundred are children under fifteen years of age. There are a large number of Mexicans and native Californians in the county, but many large ranchos have been purchased by Americans during the past few years and subdivided into farms. This has caused many of the natives and Mexicans to lose their occupation as herders and shepherds.

The prominent features in the topography of this county, are the three branches of the coast mountains, which extend through it in a northwesterly direction, nearly parallel with each other and with the coast, dividing it into three belts of valleys and two of mountains. The Santa Lucia range extends along the coast line in an almost unbroken chain of lofty hills, from Mount San Francisquito, on the south

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of the bay of Monterey, to Estero bay, in San Luis Obispo county, a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty miles. On the east of this range lies the great Salinas valley, and its branches. The Gavilan mountains separate this valley from the valley of San Benito and its branches, which are bounded by the main range of the coast mountains, of which Pacheco peak, in the northern corner of the county, is two thousand eight hundred and forty-five feet high-the general average of the altitude of the three ranges being from one thousand five hundred to two thousand feet. As will readily be conceived, such a configuration of the land in a section of the coast where the heavy dews and fogs from the ocean prevail during the summer, has a very beneficial influence upon vegetation. Nearly the whole of the eastern slopes is well timbered. The only pinery on the southern coast is in this county. The greater portion of the best agricultural land lies in the long valleys and table lands between these mountains. Most of the soil in the uplands is sandy or gravelly, but produces large crops of the cereals or fruits, when irrigated. The mountains, in a wide district on the northwestern side of the county, are of granite formation, which is very unusual in the coast range. This has a material influence on the soil of that section.

The Salinas river, after flowing through San Luis Obispo county, enters Monterey a few miles south of the old mission of San Miguel, nearly in the center of the southern border of the county, meanders through the Salinas valley for about ninety miles, and empties into the bay of Monterey, forming a navigable river for a short distance.

The San Benito river rises among the mountains near the Panoche. Grande, one of the culminating peaks of the Coast Range, nearly in the center of the eastern border of the county, and flows for about sixty miles to the northwest, where it unites with the Pajaro, at the southern extremity of Santa Clara county.

The Pajaro river separates this county from Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara counties, and flows about forty miles in a westerly direction, until it enters Monterey bay.

The Carmel is an inconsiderable stream, which drains the hilly country north and east of the northern termination of the Santa Lucia mountains, and empties into Carmel bay. These are all the rivers of any importance in the county.

Among the most important of its valleys, are the Pajaro, which extends from the shore of the bay of Monterey to the foot of the Gavilan mountains, about ten miles, ranging from six to eight miles in width, and divided nearly in the center by the Pajaro river. This valley con