File:Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (1855) (14757044761).jpg

Identifier: reportsofexplora05unit_0 (find matches)
Title: Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean
Year: 1855 (1850s)
Authors: United States. War Dept Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878 Baird, Spencer Fullerton, 1823-1887 United States. Army. Corps of Engineers
Subjects: Pacific railroads Discoveries in geography Natural history Indians of North America
Publisher: Washington : A.O.P. Nicholson, printer (etc.)
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: California State Library Califa/LSTA Grant

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undulations,and may be considered as nearly level. The soil contains a large portion of clay, and mustnecessarily become soft and miry during the rainy season. About three miles northward ofElbow creek, (one of the Four Creeks,) a large area of surface is composed almost wholly ofclay, without any admixture of sand or gravel, and has evidently been nearly fluid in the wetseason. This was shown by the deep tracks of animals in the then hard, sun-baked surface,and by great numbers of skeletons of cattle that have sunk in the deep, thick mud, and beenleft to die of starvation. Their whitened bones stand upright in the clay like posts around agrave. The drying up of this clayey ground has produced deep shrinkage cracks and fissures,similar to those observed in the rich soils around the bay of San Francisco. Four Creeks—From the level of the arid and treeless plain, bounded on the west in the dimdistance by equally barren mountains, we made a sudden descent of about ten feet to the hot-
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METAMORPHIC ROOKS—BOTTOM-LAND OF THE FOUR CREEKS. 27 tom-lancTof the Four Creeks. Here the aspect of the landscape is suddenly changed. Insteadof the brown, parched surface of gravel to which the eye is accustomed on the surroundingplains, we find the ground hidden from view by a luxuriant growth of grass, and the airfragrant with the perfume of flowers. The sound of flowing brooks, and the notes of the wildbirds, greet the ear in strange contrast with the rattling produced by the hot wind as it sweepsover the dried weeds and gravel of the plain. The whole scene is overshadowed by groves ofmajestic oaks, and the eye can wander down long avenues of trees until lost in the shadows oftheir foliage. This scene of luxuriant beauty is the result of natural irrigation, the ground being abundantlywatered by the Pi-pi-yuna river, which supplies the water that forms the Four Creeks. Thisstream, on emerging from the foot-hills of the Sierra, divides into several channels, to whichthe name Four

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