20 KESOURCES OF CA.LIFORN'IA. 



another for the Sierra Nevada and Klamatli Basin ; another for 

 the Great Basin of Utah; another for the coast south of Point 

 Conception ; and still another for the Colorado Desert. 



The causes of these peculiarities of climate are chiefly to be 

 found in the position of the country — a narrow strip on the 

 western side of the continent, bounded on the east by a high 

 rano:e of mountains that shuts the coast off fiom all the infiu- 

 ences of the interior; bordering on the wide Pacific Ocean, 

 washed by a warm current flow^ing across from the China Sea ; 

 with a shore line that runs nearly north and south, and is ex- 

 posed in all its length to the strong winds constantly blowing 

 southeastward over the ocean. 



§ 21. Temperature of the Middle Coast. — On the coast, 

 betAveen latitudes 35° and 40°, there is little difference in the 

 temperatures of winter and summer. San Francisco is in the 

 same latitude with Washington and St. Louis, but know^s nei- 

 ther the cold winters nor the hot summers which afflict those 

 places. Ice is rarely formed in the Californian metropolis, and 

 never more than an inch in thickness ; and the thermometer 

 never stays at the freezing point twenty-four consecutive hours. 

 The lowest point which the thermometer has ever reached in 

 San Francisco, since observations have been taken, was 22° 

 Fahrenheit in January, 1862 ; and previous to that time it had 

 never fallen below 25° ; while in St. Louis it goes down to 12° 

 every winter, and remains near that figure for many consecu- 

 tive days. The lowest figures which the mercury reached in 

 the daytime at San Francisco, in January of the years 1851, 

 '52, '53, '^4, and '55, were respectively 30°, 35°, 41°, 25°, and 

 33°, showing that in three Januaries out of five no ice at all 

 was formed in the daytime; and when the thermometer fell to 

 25° in 1854, the weather was declared to be colder than it had 

 ever been before, " within the memory of the oldest inhabit- 

 ant." During nine years' residence in the city, I never have 

 seen ice formed here half an inch thick, and never saw the 

 slightest film of it formed on water in a house. Snow some- 

 times falls, but I have never seen the streets dressed in white. 



