4. Municipalidad of Comondu, from Purísima parallel to the northern parallels of the bay of Magdalena; capital, Mission San José Comondu. Each of these four jurisdictions is at such an inconvenient distance from another's centres as to be from 100 to 150 miles apart by the line of the road. 5. Municipalidad of Todos Santos, capital at Todos Santos Mission; and 6. Municipalidad of La Paz, capital, town of La Paz, are divided longitudinally from each other, but are bounded north and south by similar parallels. 7. The last municipalidad is that of San José, which covers the remaining territory to Cape San Lucas, with its capital at the pueblo of San José del Cabo. These divisions were first inserted on De Fleury's map of 1864. When the Dominicans assumed the entire control of the missions from the Franciscans, in 1774, all the country below the bay of San Diego to Cape San Lucas began to be termed politically and religiously, in official documents, as California Antigua, or Vieja, and all above San Diego Bay as California Nueva. About that time also, or about 1770, the viceroy made the military comandante of the peninsula a lieutenant-colonel, acting as political chief, with headquarters or capital at Loreto; but in 1775 the capital of the two Californias was removed to Monterey, to whom the officer at Loreto reported until the year 1822, on the final separation of Mexico from Spain. This system was not entirely altered till several years afterward, or about the last of Figueroa's term, or say 1835. After 1835 the peninsular chiefs began to report to the head-government of Mexico, and dropped official reporting to the Monterey governor. But such was the mixed-up state of things in the far-off Californias before 1846, that the greatest confusion exists in their political affairs and archives. Since the American evacuation of 1848, the country has been placed under a general of the Mexican army, as political and military chief, with his capital generally at La Paz; sometimes at San Antonio Real, or other places. THE TRUE AND THE APPROXIMATE LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES OF LOWER CALI- The most reliable instrumental and astronomical positions in the peninsula have been taken by American officers in Ives's Colorado expedition of 1858, and contained in his celebrated survey, and is probably the most valuable and best prepared memorial yet given on any district of the continent of North America. The other positions narrated below are from Findley and other English and French works noted in our Summary, and one locality from Weller's Boundary Monument of 1850, but only a few appear to have been taken from observatories and instruments established or set up on the solid land. For instance, the positions of Vancouver, Belcher, and Kellett are often stated, or to be inferred, as taken from aboard ship at anchor, which, of course, renders observations liable to greater error. The latitudes and longitudes of the Jesuit and other Spanish observers are only approximate, and, even when given mathematically, were by the old-fashioned instruments ante 1820, and are consequently of little practical use. Commencing at the Colorado, we shall enumerate going south on the coasts of Lower California: 1. Robinson's Landing, ten miles from the mouth of the 2. The initial point of the boundary between Upper and N. Latitude. Longitude W. of Greenwich. 114° 51' 15" O 32° 31' 58" 46 117° 06' 11" 12 11. San José del Cabo, mission (land observation).. 12. Cape San Lucas (Belcher, 1839, land observation)... 22° 52′ San Bernabé Bay or Porto Seguro, or Pueblito del Cabo, is only a few miles just inside to north- Going from San Lucas up the Pacific Coast. 23° 03' 30" 109° 41' 109° 53' 13. Mesas, or Table-Lands, of Narvaez.. 23° 56' 110° 30° 28' 31° 44' 115° 57' 116° 46' 20. Cedros Island (bay inside eastern end, Kellett, 1846, land observation).... 22. Santa Marina Point, or Santa Maria (Kellett). 23. San Geronimo Island (Kellett).. 25. Point Zuñiga (Vancouver, 1792, ship observation)... 26. Cenizas Island, northwest point (Vancouver). 27. San Martin Island (Kellett).... 28. Todos Santos Bay, Pt. Grajero (Vancouver).. 117° 06' 11" 12 The hydrographic points on the coast from San Diego to the northern boundary of Washington Territory were more carefully and exactly defined by the United States Coast Survey than ever before, and are contained in Davidson's "Directory" before mentioned. In all these twenty-nine positions only eleven were made on land from fixed observatories, while the others are from shipboard and are unreliable, though sufficiently and approximately correct to be of practical use to mariners. The climate of the country between the boundary and Magdalena Bay is one of the most delightful, salubrious, and equable on the face of the globe, and, if settled, would be among the most accessible and acceptable sanitariums in the world, and is admirably adapted to raising many of the fruits of the torrid zone, and all of those of the Mediterranean basin as well as all the vegetables and cereals of Alta California; and all agree that they are of much better quality than those raised above San Diego. On the gulf shore, under the same parallels, it is not only much hotter, but is subject in the summer and fall months to terrible hurricanes and water-spouts; but these do not occur every year, and practised mariners know how to avoid and escape from them to the ports close by with little difficulty. In the winter months, after the first rains of November to May, the transparency and delightful effects of the cooled atmosphere are said to be so exhilarating as to be unequalled in the world: the moonlights are as brilliant as those of Arabia Felix and Palestine, and good eyes can read print with ease from the light of the moon; the earliest notices since 1539 to 1867 remark these facts.. A beautiful phenomenon is experienced in the peninsular meteorologies which is felt on land and on sea, particularly on the gulf coasts, and we believe is known in no other country. This is the fall of rains in the summer and autumn when the sky is without clouds and the atmosphere perfectly serene. Much has been written on this by various eminent savants, and which, as far as we are aware, is not accounted for. But may it not be the showers falling from those immense water-spouts or cloud-bursts of which frequent examples occur in the gulf shores, through the Colorado country, and below the Santa Barbara Channel, and as high north as the great basin of Washoe and Utah, of which five or six recorded examples have occurred since 1861? May not these showers, taken up by the whirlwinds generated by the cloud-bursts, sweep off the falling waters far from their centres, and, with the force of the terrific winds, carry the rains into perfectly limpid atmospheres, where they deposit their drops upon the earth? This question may be propounded to scientific meteorologists. It must not be supposed that such a country is not sometimes scourged by disease; on the contrary, the warmer and oldest settled parts below Magdalena are often unhealthy in the summer and fall, but nothing like to other tropical countries or even those of the Mexican coasts. The sun is terribly hot in these parts, but the air pure and dry, and the Lower Californians always boast of the salubrity of their hotter latitudes now settled for 170 years, and hundreds of instances, past and present, could be reported of longevities of from 100 to 110 years of age. It possesses the healthiest tropical latitudes in the world, because the winds from the ocean and gulf temper effectually the ardor of the summer suns; health can be preserved there by prudence as in the best portions of Alta California. All the mountain districts of the peninsula possess a uniformly temperate and equable climate, preserving this quality in the shade even in July and August. The peninsula is a very steep, rugged, rocky country in the interior and on many districts of the coast; the shores in most parts are lined with heavy sanddunes, and the Jesuit writers affirm that the land, both on the gulf and ocean coasts, was believed to be sensibly elevating before 1767. Lieutenant Ives, in 1858, assumes that the gulf bottom is also perceptibly rising for, say, 100 miles below the mouth of the Colorado. Several California observers suggest that the Gulf of California at one time extended up to the Sierra Nevadas, while, on the other hand, others think it can be proved that the mouth of the Colorado at one time opened not far from the parallel of Guaymas harbor; that is, its ancient entrance is nearly 200 miles south of its present one, and that it run up to the north by prior or subsequent changes and rechanges to the Great Death Valley, north of the Mohave, near where are the present silver-mines of the Pahnaragat district of 1867. ITS CURIOUS FOSSILS AND VALUABLE MINERALS. The peninsula is said even to exceed the State of California in the extent of its fossil remains of shells, fish, mammalian animals, and even, as is suggested, fossil man. There are immense formations of fossil remains in the vicinities of Magdalena Bay, Loreto, and Moleje, noticed by the Jesuit writers and by Belcher and others. Argentiferous galenas are very common above Moleje, and purc sulphur occurs in heavy deposits near the volcano vicinities, not far from the same old mission. Copper ores abound in several localities between San Diego and Rosario, and two mines have been worked there ever since 1855, and copper ores are also said by the Jesuit writers to be very common on the northern gulf coasts and islands; those of Ceralvo, San José, and Espíritu Islands being very rich and now well known. It is likely, when the business is well established, that the copper deposits of the peninsula will be very profitably worked, from the proximities of all of them to harbors and ports, as in no other parts of the world are they so accessible to good seaports. Quicksilver ores are also said to be found near Santa Catalina Mission since 1858. The salinas of the ocean coasts from San Quintin to Magdalena are very numerous and plentiful, and the salt is easily gathered. The salt-mines of Carmen Island are said to be sufficiently extensive to supply the whole world, and large quantities of salt have been sent to San Francisco during the last ten years, as it is very dry, pure, and of the primest quality, and is taken out only a short distance from ship-anchorage. Before 1750 the Jesuits offered to the viceroy to entirely support the California missions, if this deposit were granted to them by the King of Spain, but the offer was declined. For the last few years the Mexican Government has raised considerable revenues from farming out this salt-mine. All these salinas will add greatly to the resources of the country for the reduction of mineral ores and salting the product of the teeming fisheries of the coasts. Marble of excellent quality is found near La Paz and Loreto, and sulphate of lime or gypsum in large slabs, so transparent as to be used for window-lights. Immense beds of gigantic fossil oysters are found in many of the old settled districts, some of which measure two feet in length and weigh 20 lbs., and have long been used for making bricklayers' lime. Between 1861 and 1864, some twenty mining companies were incorporated in San Francisco to work the silver-copper mineral deposits of the peninsula, particularly those called El Triunfo and San Antonio Real, below La Paz, and large amounts of money have been spent and successful progress made in three or four of them. The silver-mines near San Antonio were worked since 1748, and much metal obtained from them by very simple processes, amounting to something under a million of dollars. Deposits of impure carbonate of soda, or tequisquite, exist in several parts, and are in common use. All kinds of building-stone are very accessible and abundant. One of the Jesuit missionaries, about 1765, found, near a locality of San Ignacio Mission, called San Joaquin, the remains of a fossil animal, whose bones exactly resembled those of a human being: the dimensions of the skull, vertebral and leg bones represented the remnants of a man over eleven feet high. Similar remains have been found in Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties in California State since 1860, which highly excited the attention of the learned world. It would seem, from all accounts, that the country offers one of the most inviting fields in the world for the investigations of the mineralogist, geologist, and fossilologist. MINERAL WATERS-HOT CHAPTER XI. SPRINGS-THE CURIOUS VERMILION-COLORED CAUSTIC MINERAL Springs of highly medicinal qualities, both warm and cold, are found in nearly every district of the country. Several boiling-hot springs are known on the gulf shores above San Felipe Jesus harbor. One of the most curious of these mineralized waters is found in numerous pools near the mouth of the Colorado, on the peninsular shores. It is in color vermilion-red, and of such a caustic quality as to rot the clothes of those who are incautious in meddling with it, and it produces quickly most irritable blisters on the skin, and even boils and swellings, as in the attacks of scurvy. It is undoubtedly of volcanic origin, and contains large proportions probably of bromine, chlorine, and iodine, as silver ores of these powerful metalloids are often found in the Sonora, Washoe, and Arizona mines, aad it is well known that bromine and iodine exist in unusually large proportions in the marine waters of the northern coast and of the Santa Bárbara Channel. It has lately been discovered in France that an analysis of the upper waters of the Red Sea yielded bromine in such large quantities as to be easily obtained, when there is any great demand for the consumption of that powerful substance. In Padre Ugarte's expedition up to the Colorado entrances in 1728, and in that of Padre Consag's in 1746, these caustic waters occasioned dangerous ulcers, blisters, and other sickness of their boats' crews, and greatly retarded the success of their explorations. All travellers and navigators should bear in mind the dangerous properties of these waters; they are well known by the American navigators to the Colorado and those who reside on the river below Fort Yuma, and are not to be trifled with. In some seasons it is hard to keep a ship clear of this water. SOME OF THE STRANGE BEASTS AND FISHES OF THE PENINSULAR WATERS-MERMAIDS AND DEVIL-FISHES-GREAT STORES OF WHALES AND SEALS-NORTHPACIFIC WHALE-FISHERY IN 1866. The waters of Lower California abound with some of the grandest and largest of marine vertebrata and mammalia. There are some ten species of whales, or the cetacea, among which is the sperm whale, which, forty years ago, were numerous between the Santa Bárbara Islands and Cape San Lucas, and made the fortunes of hundreds of ships. There is a small species of cetacea found between Moleje and the head of the gulf, which is said to yield a very superior quality of oil, that dries so quick as to be used in painting, and is equal to linseed-oil. The California whale, right whale, hump-backs, and several other varieties, are found mostly on the ocean coast, and since 1854 regular settlements of whalemen are made among the bays, islands, and harbors between Magdalena and San Diego (the centre of which is Magdalena Bay), who capture the cetacea from shore, where the blubber is "tried out," and the whalebone cleansed and prepared for market. When sufficient material is accumulated, it is either sold to shore merchants or to visiting whale-ships, or it is shipped direct to San Francisco, which is the centre of all their operations, and from whence they receive their outfits and make their ultimate returns. In some years there are reported to have been not less than thirty, different whaling and sealing camps below San Diego, aggregating some 2,000 men ; and as seals and the affiliative families are in the greatest abundance, cargoes are often prepared with great rapidity. Some five or six of these camps have become permanent establishments of ten years' standing, and many of the whalemen have married in the country and settled ashore in the vicinity of the camps, particularly in Magdalena Bay. All this business, with at stable and intelligent government, is capable of most profitable and even indefinite extension, and will greatly assist in the development of the country. especially as the whole ocean coast is full of ports and bays, and particularly salubrious, and supplies of edible fish, turtle, and shell-fish are abundant and easy to take. Great numbers of these "'longshore whalemen" are Portuguese mariners brought up in the American trade, and very steady, quiet, industrious men. The New Bedford journals of January, 1867, give the following data on the status of the whale-fisheries of the North Pacific for the year 1866. The total number of whale-ships belonging to the United States in 1866 was 311, measuring 73,289 tons' capacity; of these, 281 belonged to the State of Massachusetts, the most of which hailed from New Bedford. In 1866 there were 106 vessels of this fleet employed in the North Pacific, who made a catch of 65,000 barrels of oil, or 1,950,000 gallons. As many as two-thirds of these vessels fished in the Arctic, Kodiak, and Okotsk Seas, above the parallels of 52°; while the remaining, or say 25 vessels, fished on the Lower California and Mexico west coasts, and to the north of the Galápagos. This |