be immense. The reason so little settlement has been made in this extensive and inviting tract is, there are no roads by which it can be approached from other parts of the State-the hostile character of the Indians, who, until a few years since, possessed it, having also tended to keep out immigration. Lying between the main ranges of mountains are several extensive and fertile valleys, within the limits of this county. In these valleys most of the farming population resides, and here three-fourths of all the grain, fruits and vegetables produced in the county are raised.

Commencing with Ukiah, a part of the main Russian river valley, and which extends south fifteen miles into Sonoma county, we have adjoining it, on the north, Coyote valley, three miles long by one and a half wide, connecting with Potter's valley, six miles long and two wide. Twenty miles north of Ukiah is Little Lake valley, beyond which to the north is Sherwood's valley, and nine miles further on, Long valley—all containing a considerable quantity of good land, and offering tempting inducements to settlement. Round valley, sixty miles from Ukiah, lies in the northern part of Mendocino, extending, into Humboldt county. Around these larger are numbers of lateral and subordinate valleys, the most noteworthy of which are Anderson's,. Redwood, Sarral, and Eden Spring, each containing a fair share of good land. As Little Lake valley fairly represents the entire group, we select it for a somewhat more detailed description. This pleasant spot, deriving its name from a small, deep lake of pure water, reposing. among the rocks at its southern end, is six miles long and three wide.. It is sheltered on every hand by a grand amphitheatre of heavily wooded mountains, from which a number of streams of clear water descend into the valley. The base of these mountains is covered with grass, and there are several thousand acres of good land in the valley, which, though not discovered until 1853, contained, four years after, about fifty families, who managed to maintain themselves in comfortable independence, cultivating about 3,000 acres of its fertile soil. When first discovered, this valley was inhabited by three tribes of Indians, who subsisted upon the fish, game, wild fruits, and seeds found in and around it.

The climate of these valleys is more humid, and owing to their greater elevation, somewhat colder than that of the valleys further south and east. The ocean-fogs, passing over the lofty timbered ranges to the west, cause frequent showers during the summer, which tend to keep vegetation green and prevent the larger streams from drying up, as they are apt to do further south, while the snow-capped

peaks in the Coast Range to the east, absorbing the heated air from the plains, render the summer climate of this region much cooler than in the great interior and southern valleys.

Corn, hemp, and tobacco, grow vigorously, and never fail to mature in these valleys, while all the more hardy plants and fruits flourish with little other culture than the mere act of planting. The peach, however, does not thrive so well here as in warmer localities, and the grape requires to be planted on the sunny side of the hills in order to reach perfection. Most of the soil in these valleys, formed chiefly from the disintegration of the volcanic rocks of which the country around is largely composed, consists of a black, sandy loam, very favorable to the growth of the cereals, as well as most kinds of fruits. The greatest fruit-growing localities are Anderson and Ukiah valleys, in the southern portion of the county. Mendocino having been so recently settled, few of the orchards have yet attained to any great size. There were raised in this county, during the year 1867, 20,000 bushels of wheat, 65,000 of barley, and 260,000 of oats. It contains seven grist-mills, at which there were manufactured 14,000 barrels of flour-a sufficiency for home consumption, considerable quantities of potatoes, butter, cheese, eggs, lard, ham and bacon, are also produced in this county, the soil and climate being peculiarly well adapted for the culture of the potato, while the abundant pasturage causes the cows to yield much milk, and the mast afforded by the wide range of oak-forests supply a cheap and nourishing feed for the hogs, imparting to their flesh an excellent flavor. The produce from the southern part of the county, is sent to San Francisco and Sacramento, by way of Sonoma; that from the more northern districts being shipped by sea. A good road was completed in the fall of 1867, between Ukiah and Lakeport, a distance of twenty-four miles, which, by establishing wagon communication between this valley and the routes leading to San Francisco, has greatly promoted the interests and convenience of the inhabitants, the development of the agricultural resources of this section of the county having been retarded through a want of wagon-roads.

Though its boundaries were prescribed as early as 1850, Mendocino, owing to the sparseness of its population, was not organized as a county until 1859, it having in the interim been attached to Sonoma for legal and judicial purposes. Besides its isolated position, protracted and harassing wars with the Indians, who, after committing depredations on the whites fled to the mountains and wilderness beyond the reach of their pursuers, have operated to delay the settlement of this county. The Federal Government has at length succeeded in

collecting the remaining Indians on two large reservations-the one at Round valley, in the north-eastern part of the county, and the other on Noyo river, on the coast near the middle of the county. These reservations contain upward of 100,000 acres of good land, on which the Indians, under white supervision, raise enough grain and vegetables for their own support. These hostile tribes are now so thoroughly subjugated, not only in this but throughout the other northern coast counties, as to be no longer a cause of alarm to the whites, whose number has considerably increased since the savages were gathered upon these reservations. In 1860, there were only 1,498 white inhabitants in this county; at the close of 1867, there were 8,176, including 2,500 children under fifteen years of age.

Ukiah City, the county seat, is situated on the main Russian river, on a beautiful undulating plain, well timbered with oaks and willows, and sheltered on the east and west by lofty mountains. Three handsome rivulets, flowing from Potter's, Little Lake and Walker's valleys, empty into Russian river just below the town, the scenery in the neighborhood being wonderfully bold and picturesque. The place derives its name from the Eukio, or Yukio tribe of Indians, who dwelt in the valley when it was first discovered. It is the trade center of an extensive agricultural district, the importance of which will be much enhanced when it comes to be connected with Napa valley by means of a railroad, which it is thought may be effected in the course of a few years. The town, having a population of about four hundred, contains several good brick and stone stores, a neat court house, with a schoolhouse, church and other public buildings. Land is cheap in the central and northern portions of this county-the price of good improved farms varying from five dollars to twenty dollars per acre.

Mendocino City, the most important coast town in the county, stands on the north shore of Mendocino bay, at the mouth of Big river, or Rio Grande, one hundred and twenty-eight miles northwest from San Francisco, in the midst of the most extensive redwood forests on the Pacific coast. Besides being a shipping point for large quantities of lumber, it is the outlet for a large area of open country lying east of the heavy timber belt known as the Bald mountain, a portion of which extends for several miles along Big river, and also for nearly twenty valleys lying in that quarter, most of which are connected with this point by wagon roads. Mendocino, which has a good depth of water and convenient wharves, contains four hundred and seventy inhabitants, being the most populous town in the county.

There are known to be valuable deposits of minerals and metals in

this' county, though little has yet been done towards their development. In 1864, a ledge of partially decomposed auriferous quartz was discovered in the mountains near Ukiah City, and from which the discoverer extracted several thousand dollars. In November, 1867, further discoveries of gold bearing quartz were made in the mountains, thirty miles northeast of Ukiah. In October of the same year, samples of ore taken from an argentiferous lode found on Eel river, yielded, by working test made in San Francisco, at the rate of $49 50 per ton-several auriferous lodes and some placer diggings, having been found in the same vicinity. In 1863-4 considerable placer mining was carried on in the neighborhood of Calpella, eight miles north of Ukiah, other mines of this class having also been worked on the north fork of Big river, twenty miles from Mendocino City, as well as still further north, about the base of the Yalloballey mountain, in Trinity county; and when it is considered that the same range in which the rich placer mines of Trinity are situated extends south into Mendocino, there is good reason to believe that still further and more important discoveries will yet be made in this county also.

Copper ores have been met with at several points in this county, the more promising deposits being in the hills near Coyote valley, eight miles north and fifteen miles north-east of Ukiah-in Potter's valley, Walker's valley, etc. Petroleum springs are found at several places in the county, many of the settlers collecting it from the surface of the pools, and burning it without any purification. At Punta Arenas, where this substance exudes from a sandy shale on the sea shore, a considerable amount of money was expended, in the spring of 1865, in seeking after more permanent deposits, but without any marked success. Sulphur and salt are common minerals in the county, and hot springs are numerous. Within half a mile of the county seat, there is a spring of natural soda water, which, if situated in a more populous district, or near a large city might be made to yield a handsome income.

NORTHERN COUNTIES.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY.

Humboldt county was organized in 1853, from portions of Trinity and Mendocino counties, and is named after the famous German savant and traveler, Baron von Humboldt. Cape Mendocino, the most western portion of the State, lies near the center of the county on

its western border. Humboldt county is bounded on the north by Klamath, on the east by Trinity, on the south by Mendocino, and on the west by the Pacific ocean. It is fifty-six miles long, north and south, and fifty miles wide, containing 1,800,000 acres of land, of which about 500,000 are suited to agricultural, and 300,000 to grazing purposes, there being about 5,000 acres of swamp or overflowed land near tide-water. Much of the county is covered with the outlying spurs and more westerly ranges of the coast mountains, which, near the coast, are clothed with heavy forests of redwood, spruce, and pine. The timber-belt, varying in width from eight to ten miles, recedes from the coast, in some places in this county, a distance of several miles, leaving at these points an elevated terrace, or a sandy beach, destitute of timber. Humboldt bay, in the north-western part of the county, is a spacious, landlocked harbor, in which large-sized vessels may enter and lie with safety. This beautiful harbor, which has a good depth of water in most parts of it, is thirteen miles long and from one and a half to five miles wide, being narrow near the middle and expanding into a circular harbor at each end. It is popularly supposed that this bay was first discovered from sea in April, 1850, and by land in 1849; but it appears from a Russian work, published in 1848, containing a chart on which it is laid down, and which purports to derive its information from colonial documents of the Russian-American company, that it was discovered by citizens of the United States in 1806, an American vessel engaged in the fur-trade having entered it that year. The principal streams, discharging into the sea and bay within the limits of this county, are the Mattole, Bear, Eel, Elk, and Mad rivers. By the removal of obstructions near the mouth of Eel, it could probably be rendered navigable for some distance-a sloop of one hundred tons' burden having already passed up it for five miles; small vessels also succeed in running up the Elk for several miles. None of the other streams mentioned are navigable or susceptible of being rendered so, nor do any of them expand into estuaries at their outlets, forming coves into which small vessels can enter and load, as in Mendocino county.

The most westerly branch of the Coast Range is rugged and broken within the limits of this county-Mount Pierce, one of its highest peaks, being 6,000 feet high. Cape Mendocino and "False cape,” six miles to the north, are formed by the projections of spurs, striking from the main Coast Range at right angles. That forming "False cape" continuing inland, constitutes the divide between Eel and Bear valleys; the other uniting with and forming part of the buttress of Mount