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Show THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 113 I have only described the climate of the interior that series of broad plains bordering the San Joaquin and Sacramento, and ex-tending to the foot- hills of the Coast Range on the west and the Sierras on the east, which includes three- fourths of agricultural California. Taken as a whole, however, the State has three grand divisions of climate. First is the coast climate; in that narrow strip between the Coast Range and the ocean, the fields are watered nightly by the ocean fogs, and are green from January to December. Hence their leading industry expressed in the local phrase " the cow counties." Next is the interior climate, above described. The region bordering the bay of San Francisco enjoys a mixture of two climates. The third might be called the mountain- valley climate. From the Sierras some forty little valleys open westward; down each one flows a bright stream, affluent of the San Joaquin or Sac-ramento, and each has a different climate, from Sonora, where figs ripen, and strawberries grow in February, to Yreka, where snow sometimes lies for three months. Our artist has faithfully depicted the average Californian's description of the products of his State. The reader may discount the picture opposite by a very large per cent. Next I went to San Francisco, by way of Vallejo, taking steamer thence to the city. The rainy season had set in, and I awoke next morning to a view, from my room far up the hill, of a city half hidden in mist, from which spires and cupolas projected like sharp rocks above a swelling flood. Three days of rain, and then the city put on its " winter" look. The citizens boast of their winters and apologize for their summers; and well they may. August is the coldest ( to the feelings) and September the warmest month in the year ! One can feel no difference in temperature between January and June ; furs are worn from July 1st till late in August, then left off till near Christ-mas again. The latter part of the winter is singularly inild and equa-ble about as May in the latitude of Philadelphia. The genesis of these strange contradictions is in the coast winds. In July and August they set hard and full upon the coast, bringing with them a dense fog that lowers the temperature till an overcoat is a necessity. In September comes a calm, while there is still heat enough in the summer sun to warm the air ; later comes the softer wind from the south- west. But this south- west wind also drives in the rain clouds upon the interior plains; so while San Francisco has her nicest weather, the interior has its rainy season. The clouds thus driven north from the South Pacific drop but scant moisture on Southern California ; the rain- fall at Fort Yuma rarely exceeds two inches per 8 |