CLIMATE. 101 



tion, every one stayed in the house, taking good care to keep 

 doors and windows closed. A fisherman who was out at sea, 

 came back with his arms all blistered. Many calves, rabbits, 

 and birds, died of suffocation. The greatest losses are among 

 the vegetables. The fruit-trees are all burned ; the pears and 

 apples have been literally cooked." 



A similar occurrence of a hot wind, six days later, in Stan- 

 islaus County, was thus described by a correspondent of the 

 Stockton Argus: 



" The thermometer was 113? in the shade. The wind was 

 avoided, as it was heated so, that it felt as if actually burning 

 the flesh as if rushing from a hot oven. In one team of ten 

 horses, three fell in the road, from heat ; two died, but the 

 other recovered by pouring sweet oil in its throat. The ani- 

 mal's throat was closed, so that it could not drink, when the 

 oil was used so as to soften the throat, and open it, that it 

 could swallow water, when it recovered. The two that died, 

 expired before such aid could be used with them. At Burton's 

 public house, at Loving's Ferry^birds flew into the bar-room, 

 to the pitcher, to get water, so tame were they made by the 

 thirst caused by extreme heat. Birds were seen to fall dead 

 off the limbs of trees, in the middle of the day, from the heat, 

 as if they were shot. The wind was of that burning heat, 

 never before witnessed by the settlers there since their arrival 

 in the State." 



75. Interior Basins. The climate of the Sacramento-San 

 Joaquin Basin differs from that of San Francisco in having no 

 fogs, faint sea-breezes, winters four degrees colder, and sum- 

 mers from sixteen to twenty degrees warmer. The greater 

 heat of summer is owing to the want of ocean winds and fogs ; 

 the greater cold of winter is caused by the distance from the 

 Pacific, and the proximity of the snow-covered Sierra Nevada. 

 While, at San Francisco, the thermometer usually stands at 

 70 at mid-day, it is at 86 in Sacramento city at the same 

 moment ; and these sixteen degrees make a vast difference, for 



