Beyond the West: containing an account of two years' travel in the other half of our great continent far beyond the old West, on the plains, in the Rocky mountains, and picturesque parks of Colorado. Also, characteristic features of New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho ... Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and ... California, the end of the West ... the great continental railroad, together with the ... most wonderful natural scenery in the world .../ by George W. Pine.

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF CALIFORNIA.
It is interesting to notice how things will adapt
themselves to circumstances. The trees and vegetables here have a long tap-root, which penetrates
the soil far down after moisture —enabling it to grow
without rain a longer time. Providence seems to so
constitute everything in this world as to draw its
sustenance and natural life from the earth, directly
or ind;-rectly. It is evident that all the human family, all the animal creation, all the fishes and all the
insect world. are "served by the field."
Nature furnishes materials, and it is for man to
appropriate and improve them, to turn nature's
wastes into gardens of utility and beauty. The population a country can feed and clothe, depends on her
capabilities of soil and climate, and not on what her
mines will yield.
We have no other State which has so great a variety of soil and climate as California, and no State
which will produce such a large variety of products. All that is grown in the temperate zone or
in the semi-tropical climate will grow here, of su
perior size and quality. The soil and climate is so
generous, that the same amount of labor will give
larger returns than anywhere else. Apples and
pears are often gathered the second year from plant;ng the seed.
The rapidity of growth here will astonish an East
I
455