vi PREFACE 



affording the remarkable diversities of sport found 

 here. Several of the islands belong to the Government. 

 One of the largest of these, San Clemente, which has 

 the reputation of possessing the most remarkable sea- 

 angling in the world, is practically a national fish and 

 game preser\-e, dominated by the same principles of 

 conser\-ation included in the Roosevelt and Pinchot 

 poHcies. 



The perfect climate, in all probabiHty, does not 

 exist, but these isles of summer are wild flower gardens 

 when the East is snow-boimd, and, winter and sum- 

 mer, are great national playgrounds of the people. 

 In winter one ma}^ bask in mild yet bracing air, and 

 in smnmer find hfe in the open, \Yith. semitropical sur- 

 roundings, yet ^s-ithout extreme heat or humidity. 

 This caimot be better illustrated than by saying that 

 from ]\Iay to October, or for six months, the idler, angler, 

 golfer, sportsman, or health-seeker ^^^ll not experience 

 a squaU or rainstorm — comfortable, beautiful days 

 follo\s-ing one another. 



The islands have the climatic charm of the Ri\dera, 

 without its summer heat; the delights of its winters, 

 without the cold winds which sweep do^vn from the 

 Maritime Alps. It is difficult to explain the chmates 

 of Southern California, but it may interest the credu- 

 lous reader of prefaces, that, as these lines are written, 

 the twenty-second of December, 1909, in Pasadena, — 

 where the climate is practically that of the islands 

 though colder — I can see the violets and roses through 

 the open door. The heliotrope, in full bloom, reaches 

 higher than my window^; the guavas are ripening in 

 the sun, and poinsettias and other plants are a blaze 

 of color. Ever>i:hing speaks of summer, yet in just 



