CLIMATE. 89 



out of five the thermometer does not fall to 32 in the day- 

 time, though a year rarely passes without frost formed at night. 

 Rome has a day and a half of snow in average winters ; and 

 in San Francisco I have never seen the streets in a mantle of 

 white in a residence of more than twenty years. In St. Louis, 

 the winter months rarely have a day which is really comforta- 

 ble in the open air; while half the season is so in San Fran- 

 cisco, the sky being clear, the sun warm, and the breezes 

 gentle, so that the weather bears a strong resemblance in tem- 

 perature to the Indian Summer in the upper Mississippi basin. 

 Our coldest winter days, at noon, are as warm as the warmest 

 in Philadelphia. 



On the other hand, the summers are cool or cold. In No- 

 vember, 1854, the lowest figure reached by the thermometer 

 in San Francisco, was 47, while in July of the same year it 

 was at 46 showing that at no time in the former month 

 was it so cold as at one time in the latter, and the weather in 

 neither month was exceptional for its season. The mean 

 temperature of July is 57, twenty-one degrees lower than in 

 Washington city. There are, on an average, seven days in the 

 year when the thermometer rises above 80 at which figure 

 heat first begins to be oppressive while in St. Louis and at 

 Washington there are in every year from sixty to ninety days 

 that see that height. No matter how warm the day at noon, 

 the evenings and mornings are always cool, and blankets are 

 necessary at least a pair of them as a bed-covering every 

 night. Although the mean temperature of summer differs 

 little from that of winter, yet there are sometimes very warm 

 days, which may be succeeded immediately by very cool 

 nights. 



Professor Robert Von Schlagintweit says that " the climate 

 of California resembles in general character that of Italy, but 

 has not its objectionable effect of depriving the people of the 

 disposition and power of energetic mental and physical labor. 

 The dolcefar niente of the southern Italian is unknown in Cal- 

 ifornia." 



