250 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



a cloudless, almost tropical sky, heat the very soil to 

 such a degree as you can hardly believe. You may think 

 I am exaggerating, but it is the plain truth. I have had 

 my fingers blistered by touching stones, which had been 

 exposed to the noonday sun. You take refuge from the 

 cold near the hot stove; but where are we to find refuge 

 from the heat ? In our low narrow tents we feel it a 

 great deal more, as you can well imagine. To warm 

 yourself you drink hot tea or hot coffee; but what shall 

 we do to loosen the tongue which actually clings to the 

 roof of the mouth? For miles around the springs are 

 dried up, and all that is left to us is the thick muddy 

 water in the river, and that is more than lukewarm. Not 

 a blade of green grass to gladden the eye, not a flower 

 to exhale its fragrance,— everything is withered, dead; 

 the very leaves on the trees and bushes are parched and 

 shriveled, and they would rustle as the leaves with you 

 in the fall of the year, if ever the slightest breeze would 

 stir the hot atmosphere. 



Such is the climate here in the summer ; it is really no 

 better, at least not in the interior of the state; along the 

 coast, it is incomparably better on account of the proxim- 

 ity of the sea. Beautiful, glorious is the climate in this 

 part of California, only during a few months in the 

 spring; in the summer you are roasted, and in the winter 

 you may get drowned in rain and mud. 



In your letter of May 5th I find a passage, — now do 

 not get angry my dear, my beloved father,— which, 

 though your love for me speaks out of every word of it, 

 caused me almost a smile. Is it really impossible for 

 you to have more confidence in mef Is Emil Boettcher to 

 lead me whither he will to my hurt? Here in California, 

 and I believe nowhere else in this world to the same 

 degree, does this saying hold good, and this alone,— 

 "Himself is the man." Whosoever does not stand 

 firmly on his own feet, is swallowed up in an instant as 

 by a roaring whirlpool, and the greatest exertions only 

 may perhaps bring him again to the surface. That I 

 am yet on top, will, I hope, give you confidence in me 



