The land rises gradually for more than half a mile from the water's edge, towards the west and south-west, until it terminates in a range of hills five hundred feet above the sea. North of the town is a large bluff, plunging precipitously into the bay, in front of which is the best anchorage.
The most important rivers of California are, of course, the San Joaquin and Sacramento. The San Joaquin, running from south to north, is represented to be navigable in some seasons for a greater part of its length, during eight months of the year. Its chief affluents, lying altogether on its eastern side, and pouring down from the Sierra Nevada, are the Lake Fork, Acumnes, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Mukelumne, Mariposa and Cosumnes. The Rio Colorado of the West forms part of the eastern State boundary, from the 35th degree of north latitude to the Mexican line, but it flows through a region at present very little known or valued, yet future explorations may show it to be valuable. Its deep colored waters, similar to those of the Missouri and Red rivers east of the mountains, indicate that it probably has not passed through an entirely ungenerous soil. The valley of the Gila, whose waters are clear, is known to be barren.