Around the head waters of the Yuba, Feather, and Pitt rivers, the extensive tablelands of lava are sparsely planted with pines, through which the sunshine reaches the ground with little interruption.

The valley of the river is still bounded by sandstone cliffs; but as the strata are horizontal, and the bed of the river rises, the shales are not much exposed, and the alluvial banks reach to the base of the cliffs, which are so continuous that I have not yet seen a spot where we could have ascended the tableland in which the valley is excavated.

Ascending the tableland by an abrupt slope of 100 feet, our course was south one mile, when the southern slope was reached, and a large shallow valley extended across our course, beyond which a vast and slightly undulating plain extended to the horizon with scarcely a rising ground to relieve its extreme monotony.

He hoped the dogs could find the path across the narrow tableland between two branching ghylls, because it was obvious that his judgment might be at fault.

The valley was about one mile wide, with fine grassy flats, bounded by sandstone cliffs 50 to 200 feet high, and forming tableland with deep ravines.

Only dire necessity and terror could have forced a people which had reached such a stage in engineering, architecture, and agriculture, to leave hospitable valleys and tablelands for rugged canyons.

As we advanced, the ravine divided into many branches coming from an elevated tableland to the southward; we therefore again resumed an easterly course for five or six miles, over rugged hills, and descended by a gully trending north-east, which led us in a few miles into open plains.

The church, also, which I have before mentioned, was soon to be distinguished, rising above the Government cottage and officers' quarters; while in order to ensure an ample supply of water, deep wells were sunk on the tableland within the settlement, which fully answered expectation, the water proving good and abundant.

This was heavy work for the dogs, and mid-afternoon came before the partners had gained the summit only to discover that they were not upon a saddleback after all, but upon the edge of a vast rolling tableland from which a fanlike system of creeks radiated.

They had then guessed nothing, and now they were amazed at this miraculous awakening, this conquering fertility, which had changed a part of the marshy tableland into a field of living wealth.

These remarkable features forming the declivities of the sandstone tableland through which Cooper's Creek forces its way, and by confining the waters to a narrower space during floods, causes the fine deep reaches of water which characterize it.

The only difference was, that the Confederates occupied the ground formerly held by the Federal troops, and that the latter attacked, as Johnston and Beauregard had attacked, from the direction of Manassas, and the tableland around the well-known Henry House.