THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY 



building ever so plain a house, while many- 

 years would go by ere his trees yielded an 

 income adequate to the maintenance of his 

 family. 



Nor is there anything sufficiently reviving 

 in the fine climate to form a reliable induce- 

 ment for very sick people. Most of this class, 

 from all I can learn, come here only to die, and 

 surely it is better to die comfortably at home, 

 avoiding the thousand discomforts of travel, 

 at a time when they are so hard to bear. It is 

 indeed pitiful to see so many invaUds, already 

 on the verge of the grave, making a painful 

 way to quack climates, hoping to change age 

 to youth, and the darkening twilight of their 

 day to morning. No such health-fountain has 

 been found, and this cfimate, fine as it is, 

 seems, like most others, to be adapted for well 

 people only. From all I could find out regard- 

 ing its influence upon patients suffering from 

 pulmonary difficulties, it is seldom beneficial 

 to any great extent in advanced cases. The 

 cold sea-winds are less fatal to this class of 

 sufferers than the corresponding winds further 

 north, but, notwithstanding they are tempered 

 on their passage inland over warm, dry ground, 

 they are still more or less injurious. 



The summer climate of the fir and pine woods 

 of the Sierra Nevada would, I think, be found 

 143 



