298 METEOROLOGY. 



Journal, will suffice. As therein stated the winter and spring of 

 1849-'50 was a season of continual outpourings. The first settlers 

 tell us that the rain came down in torrents, and that tubs and casks 

 left out at night were found full and overflowing next morning. This 

 must, of course, be taken cum grano salis. There were no ombro- 

 meters in those mythical days, when the rain appears to have been as 

 abundant as the gold. Doubtless the rains were copious ; certainly 

 they set in earlier than they have ever done since. " The first rain 

 of 1849 took place on the 23d of September. Through the month of 

 October they became much more severe and cold, and, as no adequate 

 preparation had been made for protection against this element, the 

 sufferings of the immigrants were consequently aggravated." * 



* * '^' Through the latter part of December and beginning 

 of January, 1850, the rains were so heavy that serious apprehensions 

 began to be entertained, for the first time, of an inundation." * 



* * "By Christmas the water was over the lower portions 

 of the city ; on the 8th of January, 1850, it rose rapidly ; and on the 

 10th, and for several days after, there was no dry land in town, except 

 the knoll at the public square." * * * " In a few days 

 the waters subsided, the sun broke from its cloudy confines and shone 

 bright and beautiful again. This weather continued until the heavy 

 rains of the following March." * * * '-On the 7th of 

 April the waters began again to run into the town, and on the 8th 

 the council voted an appropriation of money for constructing a tem- 

 porary levee, which was made, and the principal business portion of 

 the city saved from an overflow." — (History of the City.) The open- 

 ing half of the winter of 1850-'51, when commence our own observa- 

 tions, was rainless, and consequently the river remained at low -water 

 mark until January, 1851, during which month about three-fourths of 

 an inch of rain fell, and a corresponding rise in the river occurred. 

 From this period the river remained very low until April 5, when it 

 attained, although by no means a high level, still a greater elevation 

 than at any prior date of the season, and navigation continued open 

 to most of the upper trading points on the Sacramento, as well as to 

 Marysville, until the summer. The rains that fell during this inter- 

 val amounted to about 4 inches. 



The rainy season of 1851-'52 commenced early, and the river rose 

 correspondingly. By the 30th December it was up to within 4 feet of 

 its natural banks, in consequence of the heavy rains which fell up to 

 that date, amounting in the aggregate, during September, October, 

 November, and December, to about 10 inches ; thus compensating, in 

 a measure, for the deficit of the previous season. The rain of the year 

 1852 was well distributed among all the months of the wet season, 

 and amounted in the aggregate to about 27 inches. The heaviest rains 

 occurred in March and December, and consequently the city was over- 

 flowed both these months, the levee not proving adequate. The first 

 of these inundations occurred on the 7th March, owing to the washing 

 away of the embankment at the flood-gate in the levee at Sutter lake, 

 as well as to a crevasse on the American river ; and for one week 

 nearly the whole city remained submerged. The rains which followed 

 after the great fire of November, 1852, were the heaviest known for 



