35S Transactions of the 



CLIMATIC INFLUENCES IN CALIFORNIA. 



The influence of climate upon race has obtained a sufficient general 

 recognition to he accepted without demonstration. Buckle, in his frag- 

 mentary work on English civilization, endeavored to prove that climate 

 and soil are the two main Features in determining the character of the 

 race. Geographical position, perhaps, would he a more acceptable dcfi 

 nition of his theory, since he included, by necessity, the hydrography 

 and topography of the land. Herbert Spencer, in his forthcoming work 

 on Sociology, devotes some space to a consideration of the influence of 

 climate on social development, and deduces from the facts which he cites 

 the conclusion that while civilization, cnce established, appears to flourish 

 best in the temperate zone, the most energetic tribes and nations have been 

 produced in hot and dry climates. The alliance of heat with humidity 

 seems to tend toward the production of lower intelligences, darker skins, 

 and more languid motives, but great heat with little moisture tends to 

 bring forth combatant, aggressive, restless, and daring races, such as 

 the Assyrians, Babylonians, Scythians, and so forth, of old. It is a fact, 

 however, which is not sufficiently considered, that the thermometer is 

 a very deceptive test of temperature, and that estimates based upon it, 

 without taking into account other climatic and meteorological phe 

 nomena, are very likely to be false. The climate of California is, take 

 it for all in all, one of the most agreeable in the world; and yet there 

 are apparent heated terms in this State, the mean of the thermometrical 

 record of which would give foreigners a very erroneous idea of the real 

 condition of the atmosphere. It may be doubted, indeed, whether there 

 is another region on earth where the climatic conditions suited to the 

 preservation of robust health and agreeable to the senses are so nicely 

 balanced. In our great valleys the Summers are hot, but there is just 

 so much moisture in the air that the heat is not oppressive, and at the 

 same time the sluices of the skin are permitted to act freely, and thus 

 relieve the lungs and circulation. The mean temperature of Sacramento 

 in the present month is seventy-three degrees Fahrenheit; that of Vab 

 lejo is sixty-three degrees; and that of San Francisco is fifty-seven de- 

 grees. If we compare the average temperature in Summer and Winter, 

 however, we shall at once perceive that there is greater uniformity hero 

 than in most other regions. For example, the January and July tern- 

 perature of Sacramento exhibit a difference of only twenty-eight de- 

 grees. The same seasons in New York show a difference of forty-four 

 degrees; and so on. It is true that great differences of temperature 

 may be found between various places in California, hut taking the seasons 

 throughout the year, it is apparent that we have here an equable climate, 



Of the effect of climatic conditions on the race much might be said, 

 for probably there is no place in the world where the influence of climate 

 has been so marked in changing even well defined tj'pes. It is not an 

 exaggeration to assert that between the inhabitants of the Atlantic 



