194 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



Octo"ber opened with calm sultry weather, which continued during 

 the first six days ; afterwards it became variable. The first rain of 

 the season I'ell before daylight on the 10th. During the last half of 

 the month the wind prevailed strong from the northwest, and on the 

 last three days it was very high. 



On the 4th of November the regular rainy season may he said to 

 have set in, although the quantity of rain that fell did not amount to 

 more than about an inch and a half for the whole month. 



December was throughout a cold month. Hoar frosts were frequent 

 and vegetation was completely arrested. There were eight foggy 

 days this month ; two entirely so. On two afternoons these logs 

 gravitated towards the earth in the form of mist ; generally, however, 

 they were dissipated before noon. At the period of the winter solstice 

 rain fell, and the thermometer sank to 32° at sunrise ; the wind blow- 

 ing fresh from southeast, and the barometer reading 30 inches. The 

 year ended cold and clear, with the wind from northwest. 



Our tables for 1853 are not as complete as we could have desired, 

 because we were not provided in time with the necessary meteorologi- 

 cal appliances ; and, consequently, the monthly quantitative fall of 

 rain cannot be put down with scientific accuracy. The annual amount, 

 however, recorded in the table, approximates very nearly, the true 

 measurement. 



REMARKS FOR 1854. 



The opening month of this year is notable for its unprecedented 

 low temperature. For the first five days the mornings were foggy, 

 the wind remaining all the time very light from northwest. On the 

 morning of the 5th the barometer lell suddenly 0.30 inch, and in 

 the afternoon a gale set in from the nortliwest and blew violently for 

 twenty-four hours. On the next morning, Sutter lake, situated at 

 the northwest angle of the city, was frozen over, and the thermome- 

 ter at 8 a. m. read 32°. From this date to the 20th the weather 

 was variable. The rains were cold and generally accompanied with 

 high wind from southeast. On the 15th the Coast range* of mountains 

 presented the novel appearance of being covered witii snow in their 

 whole extent, and on the 20th the thermometer fell to the lowest point 

 ever before observed since the settlement of the country, viz : 19° at 

 T a. m., and did not rise above freezing the whole day. So per- 

 sistent was the cold that Sutter lake remained frozen over for twenty- 

 four successive hours. The mean temperature for four days, from the 

 19th to the 23d, was 29°. From all the inlbrmation that can be ob- 

 tained from the oldest settlers, the greatest degree of cold previously 

 observed was in December, 1850, when the thermometer fell to 26°. 



* The Sierra Nevada lie parallel to the coast of the Pacific, and, as their name imports, 

 this lofty range of mountains is always more or less capped with snow. But between 

 the latitudes 34° and 41'^ — between San Buenaventura and the Bay of Trinidad — there 

 runs west of the Sierra another smaller chain called the Coast range, of which Monte del 

 Diablo, 3,7G0 feet, Mount Ripley, 7,500 feet, and Mount St. John, 8,000 feet high, according 

 to Milleson, are the culminating points. In the valley between this Coast range and the 

 Great Sierra, varying in breadtli from 40 to 80 miles, according to Fremont, flow from 

 the south the river San Joaquin, and from the north the Sacramento. 



