THE CHANNEL ISLANDS 5 



The winter among the islands really lasts from the 

 first rain until a few weeks after the last; or from 

 December until April. Then the sun grows warmer, 

 the verdure produced by rain, such as the grasses, 

 dies down, but the bushes — the chaparral with which 

 most of the islands abound — are always green. The 

 days grow warmer, the average for summer being 65°; 

 that of winter 54° — the difference of eleven degrees 

 being, in itself, a climatic feature to attract attention. 

 The so-called trade wind now becomes fixed, blowing 

 every day and giving a continual cooling breeze to all 

 the coast. Fogs may be expected. They form out 

 beyond the islands somewhere, and may be seen com- 

 ing in, in long attenuated streamers and banners, as 

 night comes on, filling up the valleys of the coast with 

 great tumultuous seas — a splendid sight from the top 

 of the Sierras, the islands, or the mainland. Without 

 these fogs, California would be a teeming desert. 

 They are enjoyed and welcomed by the people; they 

 mean life and comfort, and when they cease, in Sep- 

 tember or October, for a short time warm weather 

 may be experienced. But so finely, so evenly, is 

 this adjusted by nature, that the uncomfortable 

 days are rarely more than two or three at a time, 

 and two such "hot spells" in a summer, at these 

 islands or along-shore, are considered strange and 

 abnormal. 



It is for this reason that the claim has been made 

 that this region — and with the islands I include the 

 mainland shores for thirty or so miles inland — is as 

 nearly perfect, climatically, as one can find in the world. 

 It is not perfect in the strict sense of the term — such 

 a place does not exist — but it has more advantages. 



