CLIMATE. 25 



happiness of a man who wishes to take life easy, and do noth- 

 ing. Indeed, all the valleys embosomed in the Coast Moun- 

 tains, from Humboldt Bay to Santa Barbara, haye beautiful 

 climes, which will compare favorably, I think, with the best 

 of Italy. The summer days are always warm, rarely hot ; the 

 mornings and evenings are clear and pleasant ; in winter, ice 

 never forms over two inches in thickness, and if snow falls, it 

 never lies twenty-four hours. 



§ 22. Clear Days. — On an average, there are two hundred 

 and twenty perfectly clear days in a year, without a cloud ; 

 eighty five days wherein clouds are seen, though in many of 

 them the sun is visible ; and sixty rainy. Italy cannot surpass 

 that. Xew York has scarcely half so many perfectly clear 

 days. From the first of April till the first of JSTovember, there 

 are in ordinary seasons fifteen cloudy days ; and from the first 

 of November till the first of April, half the days are clear. It 

 often happens that weeks upon weeks in winter, and months 

 upon months in summer, pass without a cloud ; that is, at a 

 distance of thirty miles from the ocean. Near the shore, coast- 

 clouds are frequently blown up from the sea, but they disap- 

 pear after ten o'clock in the morning. 



§ 23. The Sirocco. — One case, and only one, is on record, 

 of a sirocco, or buniing-hot wind, visiting the coast. This one 

 was felt at the town of Santa Barbara, in latitude 34° 20', on 

 the ocean-shore, on the 17th of June, 1859. The Gazette news- 

 paper of that place, published six days afterward, said : 



"Friday, 17th June, will be long remembered by the inhab- 

 itants of Santa Barbara, from the burning, blasting heat expe- 

 rienced that day, and the efiJects thereof Indeed, it is said 

 that, for the space of thirty years, nothing in comparison has 

 been felt in this county, and, we doubt, in any other. The 

 sun rose like a ball of fire on that day ; but though quite warm, 

 no inconvenience was caused thereby until two o'clock, p. m., 

 w^hen suddenly a blast of heated air swept through our streets, 

 followed quickly by others ; and shortly afterward the atmo- 

 sphere became so intensely heated, that no human being could 

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