islands, Iceland's Geysers, and Mount Hood, demonstrate that the interior forces which pushed up Mount Shasta, and elevated the Sierras from mother earth's bosom, still have an existence. The treasure of Peru, Chili, Central America, Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington Territory, British Columbia, and Alaska, all belong to the great mother vein whose rich mineral deposits of gold and silver give more mineral wealth than all the rest of the world.

In California, the gold and silver producing range is chiefly confined to the Sierras, which, on their eastern side, throw out the immense silver wealth of Nevada, and, upon their western slope, hold in their stern granite embrace the gold of California. The Coast Range, extending the length of the State, and forming a chain along the sea-coast of from eight to twenty miles in width, possesses none of the precious metals, except in a few places where detached portions of the Sierras have been carried toward the west, or where spurs of this chain push down to the sea, as they do in Del Norte and San Diego counties. But, although the precious metals are not found in the Coast Range to any great extent, other minerals of value are found there in great abundance-coal, copper, tin, quicksilver, lead, asphaltum, borax, sulphur, salt, alum, arsenic, antimony, gypsum, epsom salts, petroleum, soda, and many others.

The valley formation of California consists of a deep loam and sand, with but little clay. In portions of the valleys a black, tough adobe soil is found: it is very productive, but being generally in low places, where the water stands until late in the spring, it is either too

wet for cultivation or, when the waters leave it, bakes and cracks with the heat of the sun. Through portions of the low foot-hills tough clay is found; in other portions of the foot-hills, sandy and gravelly ridges of little value. But the greater part of the foot-hills and the slopes of the Sierras are fit for cultivation, and contain the best grape and fruit lands in the State. Along the chief rivers, bays, and sloughs of the State, vast areas are overflowed with salt water, or with the water from rivers and interior lakes; and, toward the southeastern portion of the State, the beds of ancient lakes, sandy and alkaline deserts, occupy a considerable space.

CHAPTER XXII.

Climate-Seasons-Heat and cold-Winter in the Sierras-Tradewinds-Animal vitality-Summer in the Sierras and valleysRain-fall compared with other parts of the world-Flowers of the valleys-Spring-time-Wheat-fields-Agriculture-Harvesting

Planting and sowing-Volunteer crops-Straw-burning-Storms and hurricanes-Sand storms.

CLIMATE AND SEASONS.

No State in the Union nor country in the world possesses such diversity of climate as California. Within her limits can be found the genial rays of the tropical sun, the fogs and damps of England, and the eternal snows of the Alps, with every shade and degree of temperature between these degrees blended into each other and extending their duration through every month in the year. Throughout the vast agricultural valleys and Coast Range regions the climate is most genial: frost and snow are rarely seen, and time seems to pass in the uninterrupted course of protracted summer. Autumn may bring its golden harvest, winter its refreshing showers, spring its verdure, and summer its heat; but all these are so blended and portions of each season carried into the others that it may be said that, with the exception of the Sierra mountains, the climate of California is perpetual summer. Wheat-fields green in January, in head in March, and ripe in June; vegetables growing every day in the year; new potatoes in February and strawberries in March; tender lambs gambolling upon the sward in December and January; and sheep-shearing in February and March, may indicate the genial climate of a land whose clear sky, invig

orating atmosphere, and hearty, genial people are never forgotten by those who have ever lived in the countrya region always to be spoken of as the beautiful sunny land, whose gorgeous verdure, rich soil, variegated forests, unsurpassed productiveness, and joyous crystal streams whose dimpled currents are never congealed by the pinching frosts of winter, render California a land most desirable for the abode of man.

California beyond doubt is the favorite spot of earth, where nature has dealt her bounties with most lavish hand to proclaim her supreme power and adorn most luxuriantly her footstool-a land whose wheat-fields of June, clustering grapes of October, and orange groves of February are presided over by the gentle Ceres, who, no longer dreading the abduction of her daughter, the fair Proserpine, by the ungallant Pluto, has chosen her terrestrial abode in the sunny land of California.

The climate of California may be divided into three classes: that of the Coast Range, of the interior valleys, and of the Sierras. The climate of the coast and about San Francisco is perhaps the most evenly tempered in the world-cool, invigorating, and embracing. This evenness of climate and temperature extends the whole length of the State, with but little variation during the year. At San Francisco, which locality can be taken as indicating the average of the coast temperature, the average of winter is 52°, and of summer 64°, and the annual average about 56°. The lowest point reached at San Francisco during the past twenty-one years was in January, 1864, when the thermometer descended to 25° at the coldest time during the twenty-four hours, and stood at 37° at noon on the same occasion. During the same period (twenty-one years) the hottest days

were on the 10th and 11th of September, 1852, when the thermometer indicated 97° and 98°. Other hot days have been experienced at San Francisco, but none to equal the time mentioned in 1852. In July, 1855, the thermometer reached 90°, and in October, 1864, and September, 1865, reached 91°. The next highest point was reached on the 6th of July, 1867, when the thermometer indicated 93°. Such extremes are very rare, as well as the extreme of the mercury falling below the freezing point at or south of San Francisco. Indeed, at and south of this point, the climate may be termed perpetual summer; flower gardens, shrubs, and grass being as verdant and fragrant in January as in June.

The seasons in California seem to be the reverse of the seasons in any other part of the world. December, at which time the rains have fully set in and the season when winter develops its severity in most parts of the world, and the succeeding months until May are termed winter, or the "rainy season," in California. About the middle of November the rains begin to fall in the valleys, and the Sierras receive their new fleecy robes of winter, the skirts of which grow thin and ragged as they reach down the western foot-hills of the Sierra range, until they entirely disappear at the edge of the green sward, where under the same sun, and in the same latitude and longitude, the icicle and the honeysuckle struggle for the mastery — where the cold fingers of winter pinch the blooming cheeks of spring. During this period, and while the tall pines groan under their burden of snow, and the fierce gales sweep over the jagged peaks of the Sierras, and the miner seeks the shelter of his log-cabin, makes his tedious journey up the mountain sides with his broad snow-shoes, or, with sledded.