continuation of the same range; on the south by Sonora and Old or Lower
California, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Its extent from north
to south is about 700 miles, and from east to west from 600 to 800
miles, with an area of about 400,000 square miles. A small portion only
of this extensive territory is fertile or inhabitable by civilized man,
and this portion consists chiefly in the strip of country along the
Pacific Ocean, about 700 miles in length, and from 100 to 150 in
breadth, bounded on the east by the Sierra Nevada, and on the west by
the Pacific. In speaking of Upper California this strip of country is
what is generally referred to.

The largest river of Upper California is the Colorado or Red, which has
a course of about 1000 miles, and empties into the Gulf of California
in latitude about 32 degrees north. But little is known of the region
through which this stream flows. The report of trappers, however, is
that the river is _canoned_ between high mountains and precipices a
large portion of its course, and that its banks and the country
generally through which it flows are arid, sandy, and barren. Green and
Grand Rivers are its principal upper tributaries, both of which rise in
the Rocky Mountains, and within the territories of the United States.
The Gila is its lowest and largest branch, emptying into the Colorado,
just above its mouth. Sevier and Virgin Rivers are also tributaries of
the Colorado. Mary's River rises near latitude 42 degrees north, and
has a course of about 400 miles, when its waters sink in the sands of
the desert. This river is not laid down on any map which I have seen.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers have each a course of from 300 to
400 miles, the first flowing from the north and the last from the
south, and both emptying into the Bay of St. Francisco at the same
point. They water the large and fertile valley lying between the Sierra
Nevada and the coast range of mountains. I subjoin a description of the