1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



185 



RAMBLE 103. 



CMMATK OF f'ALlFOKNIA. 



CLIMATIC MAP 



CALIFORNIA ^ 



44T052 52"60 60'"6a 6S"'7i 30To44 



^^^ 



The Rambler this time holds be- 

 fore the reader something that looks 

 much like an anatomical (ignre of a 

 man's body. The back seems to have 

 received a hard knock, and there's 

 the stone that did the knocking, se- 

 curely lodged in the back. A closer 

 observation, however, enables us to 

 read upon it the words Lake Tahoe. 

 That dispels the anatomical idea as 

 applied to man, and we have before 

 us a climatic map of California. 



The climate of this State is so di- 

 verse that it is the boast of its in- 

 habitants that it can supply any 

 kind of climate desired, and at few 

 hours' notice. That this claim is 

 not without foundation, we can 

 prove from the study of the very in- 

 teresting map before us. The State 

 of California measures 800 miles in 

 length by about 300 in width; and 

 could its area be correctly measured 

 it would be the first State in size in 

 the Union. To illustrate. Texas is 

 called the largest State. Let us lay 

 down a large piece of cloth to repre- 

 sent that State. Our cloth would 

 represent a nearly dead-level plain, 

 with a few wrinkles in the north- 

 east, representing hills. Let us now 

 lay down a large cloth representing 

 California. Our second operation 

 upon the cloth would be to com- 

 mence puckering it up. Here we 

 make an immense pucker to repre- 

 sent Mt. Whitney, 15,000 feet above 

 sea-level; then another pucker for 

 Mt. Shasta, 14,000 feet; then we 

 keep on puckering 14 other moun- 

 tains that average 10,000 feet each; 

 then the immense Sierras; the Coast 

 Range; San Bernardino, and a host 

 of lesser mountains and ranges, and 

 every one of them cut into by im- 

 mense canyons, of which the Yo- 

 semite is only one of the noted. 

 When wo complete the puclcering of 

 our cloth, and have before us a re- 

 lief map of the State we find the 

 earth-sculpture here fashioned upon 

 a mighty scale; and the contrasts 

 of heat and cold are no less strik- 

 ing; for, from Mt. Whitney's sum- 

 mit, capped with snow, we; look 

 down upon the most desolate and 

 torrid region on the continent — 

 Death Valley — the area of which 

 is much below the sea-level. Could 

 we, therefore, iron out all of these 

 immense folds as we can ron out 



