CLIMATE. 87 



63. Many Climates. The State reaches through nearly 

 nine and a half degrees of latitude. San Diego is as far south 

 as Charleston, three and a half degrees south of Gibraltar, 

 and near the parallel of Jerusalem and Shanghae ; and Cres- 

 cent City is as far north as Chicago, Providence, Rome, and 

 Constantinople. Italy has the same general shape, direction, 

 and length as California, but is five degrees further north. 

 Much of the Golden State has the winter of South Carolina, 

 and the summer of Rhode Island. The orange, the lemon, 

 the olive, the fig, the pomegranate, the vine, the peach, the 

 apple, wheat, and barley, all find most congenial climes in Cal- 

 ifornia. 



The State, indeed, has many climates ; one for the western 

 slope of the Coast Range, between Point Argiiello and Cape 

 Mendocino ; another for the low land of the Sacramento Ba- 

 sin ; another for the Sierra Nevada and Klamath 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 

 range of mountains that shuts the coast oiF from all the influ- 

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

 washed by a warm current flowing 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 ; and with a large, dry plain in 

 the middle of the State ; and a hot, arid desert in the south- 

 eastern corner. 



64. Sea Breeze. The sea breeze is a prominent feature in 

 the climate of California. Nearly every day the wind blows 

 from the ocean to the land. In the summer its force is stronger 

 than in the winter, on account of the great heat of the earth 

 in the Sacramento-San Joaquin, Mojave, and Colorado Basins. 

 The air there rises after becoming warm, and its place must 



