CLIMATE. 37 



Between the 1st of November, 1861, and the 1st of Febru- 

 ary, 1862, 37 inches of rain fell in San Francisco; 75.69 in 

 Grass Valley; 79.28 in Downieville ; 101 in Sonora; 42 hichei^ 

 of rain and 50 feet of snow (the snow probably equalling 60 

 inches of water) on the summit of the Sierra Nevada at Hcn- 

 ness Pass ; and 34 feet of snow and a great amount of rain 

 (not measured) on the summit of the same range at the Big- 

 Tree Road. The observations at the Ilenness Pass were kept 

 by Mr. S. R. Dunham; those at the Big-Tree Road by Mr. 

 Richey. 



There have been " rainy seasons" in California which passed 

 without rain; and the grass, receiving no moisture in winter, 

 spring, or summer, has remained brown for a period of eigh- 

 teen months. But no drought — more fearful than the worst 

 of floods — has visited the country during the last twenty years, 

 nor have we any accurate information about those that are re- 

 ported to have happened before that time. 



So long as the wind blows from the north, we expect fair 

 weather ; when it veers to the south, rain may be expected, 

 usually within forty-eight hours. Sometimes, after a rain, the 

 clouds near the earth move toward the south, while those 

 higher up are going in the contrary direction : in such case, 

 more rain may be expected. In no part of Europe or the 

 Atlantic states can the state of the weather be predicted or 

 guessed with so much reasonable confidence as in California. 

 Here it is almost a certainty that nineteen days out of twenty 

 in summer and fall, and that ten out of twenty on an average 

 in winter and spring, will be clear and warm. Many circum- 

 stances of value, in furnishing grounds for predicting the state 

 of the weather in other regions, are of no use here. In the 

 Mississippi valley, for instance, three consecutive frosty morn- 

 ings are considered as an almost certain indication of rain ; but 

 in California, frosts have no such significance : for a dozen 

 may occur successively in the coast valleys or foot-hills of the 

 Sierra Nevada, and nobody expects rain the more on that 

 account. 



