440 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



era coast. In Crescent City, 300 miles north, the temperature is as mild 

 as is that of San Francisco, frost and snow being of rare occurrence. 



That this coast line, stretching through 8° of latitude, should have such 

 remarkable uniformity of temperature, while phenomenal, is explained by 

 the constant west wind which comes from the warm Japan current. These 

 winds bear with them the uniformity of temperature of large masses of 

 water, and render the west coast climate warm in winter and cool in sum- 

 mer. For this reason isothermal lines are, as they near the coast, so de- 

 flected as to run north and south, and mark out three climatic belts, which 

 I have named Coast, Valley, and Mountain. This division has been gen- 

 erally adopted, and from a therapeutic standpoint answers admirably. 



The coast climate extends several hundred miles north and south, and 

 reaches from five to twenty miles inland. 



The valley belt, beyond the Coast Range, commencing with Shasta Valley 

 on the north, extends down through the Sacramento and San Joaquin Val- 

 leys, into the arid plains of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, while the 

 mountain includes the Sierra Nevada beyond. Rainless summers char- 

 acterize all these regions; 



That portion of California which has obtained the greatest reputation; 

 which has filled the eyes of strangers with visions of a land where the 

 orange and the vine flourish; where the tenderest plants grow unprotected; 

 where it is neither so warm as to be sultry, or so cold as to necessitate fire; 

 where nature has so blended her charms as to hush the murmuring of the 

 most fastidious invalid, is along the coast and the adjacent country directly 

 influenced by it. And this is of truth a wonderful region: a coast line 

 extending through 8° of latitude where snow is phenomenal and frost rare; 

 where the mean daily, monthly, and annual temperature varies within a 

 few degrees only; where the bright sunshiny days are the rule, and sultry 

 ones unknown; where the fresh salt air so invigorates as to prove an 

 exhilarating tonic; and where flagging energies and a toneless system are 

 revivified and thrown into a state of the highest tension, commands recog- 

 nition. To every picture there is, and should be, some dark lines. In our 

 enthusiasm we often forget to mention the fogs which float in from the 

 ocean and enwrap us with a chilly embrace; that the breeze which so 

 intoxicates us, and which, by long habit, we have learned to call bracing, 

 searches the marrow bones of the unacclimated, and sends cold chills 

 through the enfeebled frame of the invalid. This holds true of that region 

 only which is north of Point Conception, and is directly on the ocean. 



Our boasted climate is only exemplified to the full in those places so far 

 away from the coast that the radiant heat will remove all rawness from 

 the sea breeze, or in those valleys adjacent to the coast, but protected by 

 the foothills. 



The Japan current, which hugs the northern shore so closely, giving us 

 a cool and bracing climate, does not exert the same influence south of 

 Point Conception. This is partly due to its waters being heated by the 

 more southern seas and a hotter latitude, partly to the fact that it is at 

 this point separated from the main land and pushed to the westward by a 

 warmer current. The wind blowing over this no longer chills, but still 

 exerts a decided influence. For this reason, certain portions of California 

 possess a climate, in its way, unapproachable, and not to be rivaled the 

 whole world over. 



So loudly, so ably, and with such justice have its praises been heralded, 

 that to add were useless. Even here, it is well, in selecting, that some 

 care should be exercised. Climatically speaking, the therapeutic area of 

 Southern California is small. It is limited to those localities only which 



