CONCLUSION. 437 



CHAPTER XV. 



CONCLUSION". 



364. General Summary. Twelve chapters of this book 

 have been filled with a detailed statement of the nature and 

 characteristics of the resources, industry, trade, and society of 

 CALIFOENIA. In this chapter, I shall present a summary of 

 their main features. 



We have, then, before us a State lying in the midst of the 

 temperate zone, on the western coast of North America; 

 bounded on one side by the Pacific Ocean, and on the other 

 by a high range of mountains ; reaching through nine degrees 

 of longitude and ten of latitude; with a coast-line 1,097 miles 

 long, and a total area of about one hundred and sixty thou- 

 sand square miles. The heart of the State is drained by two 

 large rivers, which run from north and south, unite midway, 

 and in their course to the sea form three large and deep bays, 

 with secure and spacious harbors. On these bays and their 

 tributaries, there are nearly one thousand miles of navigable 

 streams now used by steamboats and sailing-vessels. 



The climate near the ocean is the most equable in the world. 

 At San Francisco, there is a difference of only seven degrees 

 between the mean temperatures of summer and winter the 

 average of the latter season being 50 and of the former 57 

 Fahrenheit. Ice and snow are never seen in winter; and in 

 summer the weather is so cool, that heavy woolen clothing is 



