362 Life in the Open 



In the course of time he reached Southern California, 

 and after several years' trial selected the San Gabriel 

 Valley as having the most perfect climate he could find 

 in a civilised country for continuous residence. My own 

 home for twenty years has been but five miles distant 

 from the ranch of this well-known and enterprising citi- 

 zen, and, while I have not made extensive investigations 

 abroad, I have in America, and am confident that his 

 judgment is unbiased and his assumptions correct and 

 logical. 



The perfect climate, in all probability, does not ex- 

 ist, but I believe that parts of Southern California come 

 nearer to it than any locality in the civilised world. A 

 locality cannot be adequately judged by a single year, 

 as some seasons are wet, and some are dry ; the real 

 test is by the decade, or better by two. Orange trees 

 thirty years old bloom in my garden, giving the answer 

 to the query as to the lack of extreme cold in that time. 



The variety of climates in Southern California, their 

 remarkable range, are the features which impress the 

 new-comer, and are well illustrated in the following inci- 

 dent: Some years ago, I published anonymously in a 

 New York journal, the Evening Post, if I am not mistaken, 

 a statement to the effect that the residents of Pasadena 

 could pick oranges, bathe in the ocean with a temper- 

 ature not much cooler than that of Newport in summer, 

 and enjoy sleighing and snow-shoeing, all in one day. 

 This extraordinary statement from the Eastern stand- 

 point was regarded a joke by the press, and quoted as 



