e-spreading branches of an oak, having travelled about 40 miles.
Striking a fire and heaping upon it a large quantity of wood, which
blazed brightly, displaying the Gothic shapes of the surrounding oaks,
we picketed our animals, spread our blankets, and slept soundly.

It rained several hours during the night, and in the morning a dense
fog filled the valley. Saddling our animals, we searched along the foot
of the next range of mountains for a trail, but could find none.
Returning to our camp, we proceeded up the valley, and struck a trail,
by following which two miles, we came to the house (Barnett's). The
door was ajar, and entering the dwelling we found it tenantless. The
hearth was cold, and the ashes in the jambs of the large fire-place
were baked. In the corners of the building there were some frames, upon
which beds had been once spread. The house evidently had been abandoned
by its former occupants for some time. The prolific mothers of several
families of the swinish species, with their squealing progenies,
gathered around us, in full expectation, doubtless, of the dispensation
of an extra ration, which we had not to give. Having eaten nothing but
a crust of bread for 24 hours, the inclination of our appetites was
strong to draw upon them for a ration; but for old acquaintance' sake,
and because they were the foreshadowing of the "manifest destiny," they
were permitted to pass without molestation. There were two or three
small inclosures near the house, where corn and wheat had been planted
and harvested this year; but none of the product of the harvest could
be found in the empty house, or on the place. Dismounting from our
horses at a limpid spring-branch near the house, we slaked our thirst,
and made our hydropathical breakfast from its cool and delicious water.

Although the trail of the valley did not run in our course, still,
under the expectation that it would soon take another direction, we
followed it, passing over a fertile soil, sufficiently timbered and
watered by several small streams. The quantity of arable land in
California, I believe, is much greater than has generally been supposed
from the accounts of the country given by travellers who have visited
only the parts on the Pacific, and some few of the missions. Most of
the mountain valleys between the Sierra Nevada and the coast are
exuberantly fertile, and finely watered, and will produce crops of all
kinds, while the hills are covered with oa