The surface of California is especially mountainous. Two long mountain ranges run almost parallel along the coast. The principal rivers are the Colorado, Sacramento and San Joaquin. The gold mines lie principally on the base of the Sierra Nevada, for a length of about Soo miles, along the tributaries of the large rivers.
One word further, before I close, concerning a natural wonder which probably has not its like in all the universe. The cedars of Lebanon are celebrated for more reasons than one. What is especially admired is their age; 4,000
years! The most ancient are as much as eleven metres in circumference, and their tops still stand high in air, though so often smitten by the thunderbolt and battered by the
tempest. But what are these majesties in ruins, in the pres
ence of the Washingtonia of California? You may judge. In Calaveras county there is a forest of enormous trees,
pines, cedars, etc. There are sugar-pines with a diameter of not six, but eight feet, and a height Of 200 feet and more. Still these are only a species of big dwarfs beside ninetysix giant trees (Sequoia gigantea) which stand within a
mile of one another. One of them, the Father of the Forest, has been uprooted by the winds, and at present the
ground is encumbered with its enormous fragments. Grasp, if you are able, its proportions; 112 feet in circumference and more than 450 in length. Another of them has been
felled. To make use of the stump, it has been leveled off and made the foundation of a printing shop. The whole building rests on this stump, which serves for a floor at the same time; they have even taken pains to preserve a portion of the trunk at the side, which has been worked into a fine staircase of twenty-six steps. Each of these colossi of the vegetable kingdom has its name. The most noteworthy are the Two Guards, the Three Graces, the Twins,
Hercules, the Hermit, the Beauty of the Forests, etc. In Belgium one will hardly believe in all these prodigies of
vegetation. I have not been able to see them with my eyes, but I have the particulars I have given you from respectablc