Gulf of California

“ The Gulf has a considerable number of islands, most of them near the peninsular coast, and several deep, well-protected bays—those of La Paz and Santa Inés in Lower California, Guaymas in Sonora, Agiobampo, Topolobampo and Altata Salinas in Sinaloa. On the Pacific coast of Lower California are the Ensenada de Todos Santos and the bays of San Quentin, Viscaino and Magdalena. The principal bays on the mainland coast are Olas Atlas, which is the harbour of Mazatlan, San Blas, Banderas, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Salina Cruz and Tonalá. ”

“ An eastern coast range borders the Gulf of California, and in places attains elevations considerably exceeding 6000 feet. The western coast range, bordering the Pacific, is less elevated and seldom exceeds 3500 feet in altitude. At the extreme south the peninsula terminates in an immense mountain mass, rising in San Lázaro to 8000 feet altitude. The coasts are considerably indented, but there are not many really good harbors. ”

“ New interest in the California coast.—The development of the Philippine trade, the necessity of protecting it from other nations, continued interest in the Northern Mystery, and the opening of pearl fisheries in the Gulf of California, led to renewed exploration of the northern Pacific coasts and to renewed attempts to settle and develop California. ”

“ The coast-line is irregular and forms numerous small bays. The gulf has a depth ranging from 600 feet near the head to over 6000 feet near its mouth, and contains many islands, particularly in the upper part, the largest of which are Angel de la Guarda and Tibirón. ”

“ The peninsula, or Old California, is, as we before observed, more barren than the northern province; it is mostly a rocky soil, and seems as if some concussion of nature had disjoined it from Sonora; the climate is hot in the summer, but it is moderated by the sea breezes. Few trees of any consequence are found except on the south; there are some [81] small volcanoes in it, with a ridge of mountains; vines and the Indian fig grow wild; the coast of the gulf is low and marshy, and the pearl fishery is very valuable; the gulf produces all sorts of shell-fish, turtles, oysters, lobsters, &c. ”

“ In other words, it is always difficult to 362 run up the gulf, but almost always easy to run south. These circumstances render the employment of steam vessels very advantageous. If the navigation of the gulf permits the Edith to be used she will answer, having both sails and steam. If she draws too much water, others of lighter draught could be procured. I mention this now, as the boundary commission will commence their labors on this end of the line, and will be on the Gila next season. ”

“ I have already said that California embraces four hundred miles of sea-coast upon the Pacific Ocean. On the east, it is bounded by the Californian gulf, forming, in fact, a long peninsula. The only way of arriving at it by land, from the interior of Mexico, is to travel many hundred miles north, across the wild deserts of Sonora, and through tribes of Indians which, from the earliest records down to our days, have always been hostile to the Spaniards, and, of course, to the Mexicans. ”

“ It has been proposed to call this body of water made up of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico the Columbian Sea, in compliment to sadly-neglected Columbus; and it seems a good idea, but it will hardly now be carried out. My predecessors have seen many an interesting sight on this tropical old Spanish Main, the source, too, of that greatest of natural mysteries, the Gulf Stream. But these must have been in times long gone by. In the day of steam, with the swift prow always in motion, the ocean is vacant. There is no catching of sharks and dolphins, hardly even a covey of flying-fish. ”

“ Many rich silver mines have been found in this country. They do not run deep, but soon give out. The gulf of the sea [346] [443] begins on the coast of this province, entering the land 250 leagues toward the north and ending at the mouth of the Firebrand (Tizon) River. This country forms its eastern limit, and California [444] the western. From what I have been told by men who had navigated it, it is thirty leagues across from point to point, because they lose sight of this country when they see the other. ”

“ They say the gulf is over 150 leagues broad (or deep) , from shore to shore. The coast makes a turn toward the south at the Firebrand River, bending down to California, which turns toward the west, forming that peninsula which was formerly held to be an island, because it was a low sandy country. It is inhabited by brutish, bestial, naked people who eat their own offal. The men and women couple like animals, the female openly getting down on all fours. ”

“ It is stated in the report that with respect to all that portion of California south of 36 deg. 30 min., shortly after you have left the coast, you encounter deserts of sand, which never can be inhabited; and after you pass these deserts of sand, you approach mountains, and are involved in successive chains of mountains until you reach a population that has no intercourse with the Pacific, but whose intercourse is carried on exclusively with Mexico and other countries on the Mexican Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean. ”

“ CALIFORNIA, GULF OF, or SEA OF CORTES, an arm of the Pacific Ocean, separating Lower California from the Mexican mainland. It is 700 miles in length and varies in width from 40 to 100 miles. There is but little navigation carried on there. On the W. coast are pearl fisheries. ”

“ Altogether, Lower California is considered as one of the most barren and unattractive regions in the temperate zone, although its climate is delightful, and the mountain districts especially are among the healthiest in the world, owing to their southern situation between two seas. A curious meteorological phenomenon is sometimes observed both in the gulf and on the land ”

“ The pearl fishery of the gulf has already yielded an enormous wealth, having been prosecuted from the time of the discovery of the peninsula. The fishing season lasts from May till November, and more than a hundred vessels are yearly engaged in the business. These resources, despite the general unfitness of the country for agricultural purposes, will soon attract their full share of consideration, and cause an influx of emigrants and adventurers from the United States and other countries. ”

“ When the air in these valleys becomes heated by the sun, it rushes up the slopes of the Sierra Nevada as up a mighty chimney. To fill the vacuum thus created, the sea air is drawn in through every break in the coast ranges as by a blower. In the upper part of the California coast it sucks in with fury, as through the Golden Gate, piling up and demolishing high hills of sand every year, and cutting grooves on the granite fronts of mountains. ”

“ Puget Sound, with its numerous inlets, is a deep indentation of the Pacific coast, one hundred miles north of the Columbia. It has spacious harbors, securely land-locked, with a surrounding country abounding in timber, with exhaustless beds of coal, rich in agricultural resources, and with numerous mill-streams. Nature has stamped it with her seal, and set it apart to be the New England of the Pacific coast.
That portion of the country is to be peopled by farmers, mechanics, and artisans. California is rich in mineral wealth. Her valleys and mountain-slopes yield abundant harvests ”

“ The coasts are low and sandy, with few good harbors, the best being New Orleans, Pensacola and Havana. Cuba is in the middle of the entrance to the gulf, dividing it into two straits, that of Florida, which connects it with the Atlantic and that of Yucatan, opening into the Caribbean. The largest river flowing into it is the Mississippi. The gulf-stream enters the gulf by the Yucatan Channel, flows round it and passes out by the Florida Strait. The gulf is visited by severe winds called northers. See Gulf-Stream. ”

“ The islands, rocks, and pinnacles of the California Coastal National Monument overwhelm the viewer, as white-capped waves crash into the vertical cliffs or deeply crevassed surge channels and frothy water empties back into the ocean. Amidst that beauty lies irreplaceable scientific values vital to protecting the fragile ecosystems of the California coastline. At land's end, the islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles off the coast above mean high tide provide havens for significant populations of sea mammals and birds. ”

“ As to open roadsteads used for loading, unloading and anchoring ships, the Convention (Art. 9) provides that such areas should be included in the territorial sea, and, by implication, that they are not to be considered inland waters. We adopt that interpretation.
5. The Line of Ordinary Low Water.-Along the California coast there are two low tides each day, one of which is generally lower than the other. The assertion of the United States, with which the Special Master agreed, is that the line of ordinary low water is obtained by taking the average of all the low tides. ”

“ It is hard for us to realize, now, that only sixty years ago the territory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast was practically unknown. Try to imagine the feelings of emigrants, bound for the gold-fields of California, who have pushed into the Great Basin without knowing where to look for grass or water. They are camped by a spring of alkaline water scarcely fit to drink; their weary animals nibble at the scanty grass about the spring; far ahead stretches the pathless desert which they must cross; upon their choice of a route their very lives will depend. ”

“ Lucas is the great headland of the Pacific Ocean, and is destined to be the Gibraltar and entrepot of that coast, or perhaps La Paz may be preferred, on account of its superior harbour. As a possession to any foreign power, I think Lower California more valuable than the group of the Sandwich Islands. It has as many arable acres as that group of islands, with rich mines, pearl-fishing, fine bays and harbours, with equal health, and all their productions. ”

“ I shall never forget the impression which our first landing on the beach of California made upon me. The sun had just gone down; it was getting dusky; the damp night wind was beginning to blow, and the heavy swell of the Pacific was setting in, and breaking in loud and high “combers” upon the beach. We lay on our oars in the swell, just outside of the surf, waiting for a good chance to run in, when a boat, which had put off from the Ayacucho just after us, came alongside of us, with a crew of dusky Sandwich Islanders, talking and hallooing in their outlandish tongue. ”

“ Supposing the pressure of the waters that are forced into the Caribbean Sea by the trade-winds to be the sole cause of the Gulf Stream, that sea and the Mexican Gulf should have a much higher level than the Atlantic. ”

“ The summits of this range have been but seldom seen by white men, and have never been scaled. The river drains the whole territory, but loses itself in a terrific marsh before its tide reaches the Mexican gulf, toward which it runs. The current is exceedingly rapid; and, after passing for hundreds of miles under the land and under the sea, it unites its submarine torrent near the west end of Cuba, with that of the Orinoco and the Amazon, and thus forms that great oceanic river called the Gulf Stream. ”

“ As to that segment, California claims ownership of the sea bottom under the water separating the islands from the mainland and three miles beyond the islands, while the United States argues that California owns only a strip three geographic miles wide around each island and one extending three geographic miles from the mainland shore, with the intervening submerged land all belonging to the Federal Government. ”

“ In the severest of droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon. ”

“ No boat can land without their permission, and the United States post-office is built below high-water mark. There is wireless communication with the mainland, and a boat arrives every day. There is a very good hotel, and the climate is most equable, neither cold in winter nor hot in summer, being quite free from the sudden changes so prevalent in other parts of California. ”

“ The certainty that the wonderful reports of the gold country were true, electrified not only the whole country but the whole civilized world. Large numbers of people began immediate preparation for making the overland journey as soon as the weather should permit; while others, too impatient to wait, left for California by the way of the Isthmus.
In February, 1849, there arrived at Monterey the Panama, the first steamboat to visit the coast. The whole population turned out to see and welcome it. ”