California

(kal-e-för'ne-ah,) aW. State of the American Union, extending along the Pacific coast from N. Lat. 32° 45' to 42°; bounded N. by Oregon (from which it is divided by the 42d parallel of Lat.),E. by Nevada and the Rio Colorado, and S. by the peninsula of Lower California and the Gila river, which separates it from Mexico. Average length, abt. 700 m.; breadth, nearly 200. Area, 188,981 sq. m., or more than 100,000,000 acres, of which deserts and sterile land take up about 10,000,000, and water-surface 4,000,000. The surface ofC. is generally of a mountainous character,being intersected throughout its entire length by the Sierra Nevada with its constituent spurs. This chain forms an important climatic feature of the country; its W. slope, as far as the Pacific, being warm and luxuriantly fertile; while to the E., all is cold and sterility. Skirting the coast is the Monte Diablo range, attaining, in Monte Diablo, a maximum height of 3,674 ft., and having between it and the Sierra Nevada the rich valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. Another division of the Monte Diablo range is the Contra Costa hills, the most elevated peak of which, Mt. San Bernard i no, is 8,500ft. above sea-level. The coast-line of C. is indented by numerous spacious inlets and bays, prominent among which is the great Bay of San Francisco, entered by the famous " Golden Gate," abt. a mile in width. That bay, with its smaller adjuncts, forms one of the finest natural harbors in the world. The two chief rivers which fall into it are those of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. Other and also navigable rivers are the Suisun, Petaluma, Napa, Sonoma, and [s. 131]