IX 



UNDER GENIAL SKIES 



1. A SUN-BLESSED LAND 



The two sides of our great sprawling continent, the 

 East and West, differ from each other almost as 

 much as day differs from night. On the coast of 

 southern California the dominant impression made 

 upon one is of a world made up of three elements — 

 sun, sea, and sky. The Pacific stretches away to 

 the horizon like a vast, shining, gently undulating 

 floor. Its waves are longer and come in more lan- 

 guidly than they do upon the Atlantic coast. It 

 justifies its name. The passion and fury of the 

 Eastern seas I got no hint of, even in winter. Its 

 rocks, all that I saw of them, are soft and friable. 

 The languid waves rapidly wear them down. They 

 are non-strenuous rocks, lifted up out of a non- 

 strenuous sea. The mountains that tower four or 

 five thousand feet along the coast are of the same 

 character. They are young, and while they carry 

 their heads very high, they are soft and easily dis 

 integrated compared with the granite of our coast. 

 As a rule, young mountains always wear the look 

 of age, from their deep lines and jagged and angular 

 character, while the really old mountains wear the 

 look of youth from their comparative smoothness, 



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