NEW GLEANINGS IN FIELD AND WOOD 



It is very evident that the climate of southern 

 CaHfornia has greatly changed since Dana was here 

 in the trading ships Pilgrim and Alert, in 1832 and 

 1833. The change has been from wet to dry. 

 At that time his ship collected, and others engaged 

 in the same trade collected, hundreds of thousands 

 of hides and great quantities of tallow, all from 

 cattle grown by the missions between San Diego 

 and Santa Barbara. This fact impHes good pastur- 

 age. The cattle grazed on the hills and plains that 

 are now, during a large part of the year, as dry as 

 a bone. At present cattle left to their own devices 

 on this coast would soon starve to death. 



Dana describes violent storms of wind and rain, 

 mainly from the southeast, which the ship, an- 

 chored a few miles off the coast, or cruising up and 

 down, experienced at all times of year — one or more 

 storms each week, often lasting for days. One 

 December he describes it as raining every hour for 

 the whole month. The dread of the southeasters 

 was ever present with the sailors. One of these, 

 lasting three days, which came out of a cloudless 

 sky, blew the sails to tatters. Nowadays a south- 

 east storm of half a day is, according to my expe- 

 rience, an uncommon occurrence. To-day scarcely 

 a drop of rain falls here from April till November, 

 yet Dana describes many heavy rains in August. 

 At present, in some of the interior valleys, where 

 they grow alfalfa by means of irrigation, I see 



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