METEOROLOGY. 299 



• that season of the year of which we have any positive record. About 

 i 12 inches fell in December. Accordingly the river rose 17 inches 

 ! higher than in the flood of 1850. From the 25th December to the 

 I 24th January, 1853, when the waters began to retire, the city re- 



• mained almost entirely submerged. During the following March the 

 ! fall of rain amounted to 7 inches, and again a corresponding rise of 



the river occurred. On the 29th it rose 12 feet in twenty-four hours, 



'. and soon reached above the original banks ; and, backing up from a 



I break in the levee at Sutterville, the greater part of the city was 



I again overflowed by the 2d April, and thus remained more or less 



t deluged until the rains subsided towards the last of May. The 



amount of rain that fell during the latter month was nearly 1^ inch, 



and the aggregate for January, February, March, April, and May, 



and which kept up the river at so high a level, was about 17 inches. 



From the period to which we have thus brought down our account 

 of the freshets of the Sacramento river and the corresponding rains, 

 up to the present time, (1st January, 1858,) there has been no ex- 

 traordinary rise to record, as may readily be seen by a glance at the 

 hydrographic scale. As may also be there seen, the rains during the 

 same interval have been considerably below the average. 



