104 



RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



The amount of the rainfall increases at the rate of about an 

 inch for one hundred feet of elevation as we ascend the Sierra 

 Nevada from the west, and decreases still more rapidly as we 

 descend on the other side. Reno, fifty miles from the summit, 

 is in the State of Nevada, but its figures indicate the rainfall 

 of many places in California, at an equal distance from the 

 summit on the same side. 



The average annual rainfall is about 34 inches at Crescent 

 City, 32 at Humboldt Bay, 23 at San Francisco, 18 at Monte- 

 rey, 14 at Santa Barbara, 12 at Los Angeles, and 10 at San 

 Diego, making a difference of 24 inches in a distance of less 

 than ten degrees, or a little more than two inches to the de- 

 gree. 



78. State Rains for twenty-three years. The following 

 table shows the annual rainfall as recorded at San Francisco and 

 Sacramento since 1849, and at Stockton, Los Angeles, Santa 

 Barbara, Nevada, and Napa, for a few years. The observations 

 at San Francisco are by different observers, the figures given 

 by Dr. Gibbons being generally less than those by Mr. Tennent. 

 The difference in one year was nine inches. Both are careful 



