CALIFORNIA 



1058 



CALIFORNIA 



than local fame. In the western part, toward 

 the sea, the valleys are fertile, and when irri- 

 gated with the waters of the mountain streams 

 that flow through them they become wonderful 

 garden spots, producing in great abundance 

 sub-tropical fruits of all kinds. Of this populous 

 seaward region Los Angeles is the metropolis. 



The eastern part of Southern California is 

 made up of the Mohave and Colorado deserts, 

 over whose alkaline sands little rain ever falls. 

 Part of this waste region is a high plateau, but 

 near its northern limit, not far to the southeast 

 of Mount Whitney, the highest .point in the 

 United States, is the deepest depression in all 

 North America the fitly-named Death Valley 

 (which see), almost 300 feet below sea level at 

 its lowest point. 



The Great Valley. This is the largest valley 

 west of the Rocky Mountains, and the most 

 important. It is 400 miles in length and ninety 

 in width; its area of 18,000 square miles is 

 almost equal to the combined areas of New 

 Hampshire and Vermont. Fairly level through- 

 out most of its extent, this valley has a slight 

 dip toward the center from both north and 

 south, and each section is drained by a great 

 river (see subhead Waters, below). Only in 

 one place is the wall of mountains which shuts 

 it in broken through on the western side, 

 where the two rivers have cut an opening per- 

 haps a mile wide. 



The southern part of the valley is not so 

 well watered as is the northern, nor do its 

 waters drain into the Pacific, but into marsh- 

 bordered lakes. Some of this southern valley 

 region is typical Western desert, with its gleam- 

 ing alkali soil and its dusty sagebrush. 



Waters. Naturally in so mountainous a 

 state, the only great rivers are in its one 

 large valley. There are two of these, the Sac- 

 ramento and the San Joaquin; both rise in the 

 Sierra Nevadas, but hundreds of miles apart. 

 Finding the valley floor, the former flows south 

 and the latter north until they join about 

 sixty miles northeast of San Francisco and 

 make their way to the Golden Gate. At inter- 

 vals along their course they are joined by 

 tributaries from the east, which flow down 

 from the great Sierras brimming with water 

 from the melting snow. These rapid mountain 

 torrents are not only fine hiding places for 

 the brook trout, beloved of fishermen, but 

 furnish water for irrigation and power for elec- 

 tric plants. At certain seasons of the year 

 both the Sacramento and the San Joaquin 

 overflow their banks and have real flood plains. 



The southern part of the valley, beyond the 

 area drained by the San Joaquin, has its moun- 

 tain streams as well, but these find their way 

 not to the sea but to brackish lakes, of which 

 Tulare and Buena Vista are the most im- 

 portant. West of the Coast Range, which here 

 withdraws from the shore line, the Salinas 

 River drains the west-central part of the state, 

 and in the north are the Klamath and the Eel. 



Of the mountain lakes of California, some 

 of which rival the famous Swiss lakes in beauty, 

 the most widely known is Lake Tahoe, on the 

 borderland of Nevada. This largest of the 

 glacial lakes has a length of twenty miles and 

 a depth of 1,500 feet, and its clear, icy waters 

 abound in trout. 



Climate. There is nothing of which a Cali- 

 fornian is prouder than of his climate, and for 

 the most part with reason. The state extends 

 from about the latitude of Boston to that of 

 Savannah, and might be expected to have a 

 wide variety of climate. So indeed it has, but 

 the differences in latitude have far less to do 

 with this than has altitude or distance from 

 the sea, and the northern end of the state has 

 almost as mild a climate as has the southern. 

 Nowhere save in the high altitudes of the 

 Sierras is anything like the winter cold of the 

 Eastern coast states known, and everywhere 

 except in those localities live stock can remain 

 out-of-doors throughout the year and find 

 plenty of grass for grazing. The valleys are 

 so protected by the mountains that high winds 

 are practically unknown, and there is a large 

 proportion of sunny days. In these inner val- 

 leys the range of temperature is greater than 

 on the coast, the summer heat sometimes be- 

 coming oppressive. Each part of the state 

 believes in the superiority of its own particular 

 climate, even the intensely hot southeastern 

 desert section claiming for itself great healthful- 

 ness because of the lack of moisture in the air; 

 but most visitors agree that it is in the southern 

 section, in the neighborhood of San Diego, that 

 the climate most nearly approaches perfection. 

 There the average temperature is 68 in sum- 

 mer and 54 in winter. A favorite boast of the 

 Californian is that it is necessary to "sleep 

 under blankets" the year round, and this is 

 apparently true, for even in the warmer sec- 

 tions the nights are delightfully cool. Through- 

 out the state, except in the cold mountain 

 regions, flowers bloom out-of-doors at all 

 seasons. 



Instead of being divided into a winter of 

 intense cold and a summer of great heat, with 



