THE VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA-QUALITY OF POPULATION-THE LATER INCOM. ERS-HISPANO-AMERICAN, ANGLO-AMERICAN, AND OTHERS-SETTLERS AROUND SAN FRANCISCO BAY-SAN JOSÉ-THE PENINSULA-SAN FRAN CISCO-ACROSS THE BAY-ALAMEDA AND CONTRA COSTA VALLEYS-VALLEYS OF THE SAN JOAQUIN AND SACRAMENTO-SUTTER'S FORT-GRANTS AND RANCHOS-ABOUT CARQUINES STRAIT-NAPA, SONOMA, AND SANTA ROSA VALLEYS-SAN RAFAEL, BODEGA, AND THE NORTHERN COASTNATURAL WEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT.
ALTHOUGH the California seaboard, from San Diego to San Francisco bays, had been explored by Europeans for three hundred years, and had been occupied by missionary and military bands, with a sprinkling of settlers, for three quarters of a century, the great valley of the interior, at the opening of the year 1848, remained practically undisturbed by civilization.
The whole of Alta California comprises a seaboard strip eight hundred miles in length by one or two hundred in width, marked off from the western earth's end of the temperate zone; it was the last to be occupied by civilized man, and, to say the least, as full of fair conditions as any along the belt. The whole area is rimmed on either side, the Coast Range rolling up in stony waves along the outer edge, and for