374 Life in the Open 



o'clock, when the wind is cooler and the house is 

 thrown open. 



At the seashore, the towns from Santa Barbara to 

 Coronado, days so hot as to be a menace to comfort are 

 extremely rare. The summer fog that is almost always 

 to be seen off the coast, a high fog, is the balance wheel 

 giving cool days. It comes in at night and rarely re- 

 mains after sunrise, passing off leaving the grass drip- 

 ping with moisture, often depositing one one-hundredth 

 of an inch of water ; the air is crisp and delicious. This 

 fog, common to all the coast, is always welcome and is 

 in no sense a menace to health, this being the consensus 

 of opinion among leading physicians. Dr. John M. 

 Radebaugh, who has lived twenty-five years in Pasadena, 

 considers this region preeminent in America as a health 

 resort ; indeed the fog is regarded as a benefit to the 

 land and its people. 



The old resident in California will, as a rule, tell the 

 new-comer that he knows nothing about the climate, 

 and that all signs, especially the " rain signs," fail ; yet 

 there are certain facts relating to the climate that are 

 definitely known. Perhaps the most conspicuous feat- 

 ure in the country is the constant cool west wind that 

 blows all day, in fact everywhere in California, but south 

 of Point Conception it loses some of its force and is 

 a pleasant wind that makes Southern California summer 

 climate what it is. It begins in the morning from eight 

 to nine o'clock, increases in force until three or so, and 

 then begins to wane ; always steady, blowing under clear 



