248 Transactions of the 



great San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, and present an eternal bar- 

 rier to their further direct progress, they deflect to the north and south, 

 and, spreading out like a fan, roll along up either valley, carrying with 

 them their cooling and invigorating influences through all the interior 

 of the State. These influences are felt least, of course, further away 

 from the point at which the winds pass in through the Coast Range, and 

 at points where obstructions are presented to their onward progress 

 through the main valleys, or to their entrance into small valleys either 

 in the Coast Range or Sierra Nevada Mountains. This natural phenom- 

 ena of the interior and exterior, or inland and ocean forces, presents a 

 philosophical and truthful explanation of our general cool Summer cli- 

 mate, and- of the variations of that climate according to the favorable- 

 ness or unfavorableness of each particular locality for the entrance 

 and influence of these ocean winds. It also explains why the extreme 

 northern and extreme southern ends of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 Valleys, though ahout six hundred miles apart from north to south, are 

 each warmer than at their junction, and why there is so little difference 

 in their temperature at these extreme points. In fact, it explains the 

 mystery of the great variety of our Summer climates, including the ab- 

 sence of rain in all portions of the State; for though these ocean winds 

 are laden with water, as they strike the land along the coast and bay 

 counties, that water falls there as it comes, in the form of fogs and 

 dews, but as it rolls over the heated earth and comes in contact with 

 the warm, dry air of the interior, it assumes the form of vapor and is 

 absorbed, and, rising high, is carried away inland beyond the boundaries 

 of our State, and probably as far east as the Iiocky Mountains. 



OUR WINTER CLIMATE 



Is produced by the same interior and exterior forces, but acting in a 

 directly opposite manner, and producing in some respects diametrically 

 opposite results. As the sun recedes to the south the land gradually 

 cools, ami the inland atmosphere grows cooler and cooler, and the 

 thermometer in all the interior of the State would sink to zero and 

 below but for the counteracting influences of the exterior forces. As 

 Autumn approaches the cold currents of the ocean, from the northwest, 

 gradually grow less and less, and the warm southwestern currents take 

 their place, and wash our entire seacoast, bringing with them warm 

 but damp, walcrdaden winds. These winds, like their counterparts of 

 the Summer, rise and break over every depression of the Coas; Range, 

 and roll down into the adjacent valleys, and likewise sweep in great 

 volumes through the Golden Gate, and are by the same obstruction de- 

 flected, and sent on their way to the north and south, through the great 

 interior valleys, and, more or less, into the lesser valleys making into 

 the mountain ranges on either side. But, as the}' sweep along, they 

 meet, instead of a warm, dry air, as in Summer, to absorb their moisture 

 and carry it off in. vapor, a cold, frosty atmosphere hugging the earth, 

 and presenting to their undercurrents a most perfect water condenser 

 of nature's own complete construction. This condenser rapidly con- 

 verts the vapor of these sea winds into drops, which fall to the earth 

 in copious showers, dispelling the frosty tendency of the inland air, and 

 covering the whole country with a delightful, balmy, spring atmosphere. 

 Under its enlivening influence the dry, parched earth, left so by the 

 Autumn sun, becomes moistened, the seeds upon its surface germinate, and 



