GEOGRAPHY AXD A IK 'ILEOLOGY. 



11 



t the great Pacific Gulf-stream sweeps toward and 

 [Sjj coast, instead of bearing away from it, as on our 

 ic .side. 



Winters are mild and short, and are to a great extent a 



of growth, instead of suspension of growth as with us. 



there is a far longer season available to tree vegetation 



with us, during all of which trees may either grow or 



cumulate the materials for growth. On cur Bide of the 



continent and in this latitude, trees use the whole autumn in 



tting ready for a six-months winter, which is completely 



t time. 



Finally, as concerns the west coast, the lack of summer rain 

 de up by the moisture-laden ocean winds, which regularly 

 7 summer afternoon wrap the coast-ranges of mountains, 

 •ich these forests affect, with mist and fog. The Redwood, 

 ^ of the two California Big Trees, — the handsomest and 

 Ihe most abundant and useful, — is restricted to these 

 t ranges, bathed with soft showers fresh from the ocean 

 Winter, and with fogs and moist ocean air all summer. It 

 owhere found beyond the reach of these fogs. South of 

 Jerey, where this summer condensation lessens, and winter 

 become precarious, the Redwoods disappear, and the gen- 

 forest becomes restricted to favorable stations <»n moun- 

 sides and summits. . . . The whole coast is bordered by 

 a line of mountains, which condense the moisture of th< 

 ^^Ht s upon their cool slopes and summits. These winds, 

 Continuing eastward, descend dr}> into the valleys, and warni- 

 ^^Hp they descend, take up moisture instead of dropping 

 j^^HpThese valleys, when broad, are sparsely wooded or wo<»d- 

 ^K(T])[ at the north, where summer rain is not very rare. 

 IkJknd stretches the Sierra Nevada, all rainless in summer, 

 B^S^Bb[^Lhail-storms and snowfalls on its higher crests and 



51^8^ flanks arc forest-clad; and, between the levels 

 i 



. they hear an ample growth of the lar- 



q^KKpVcP- I n favored sp»ts of this forest, 



and only ther. found ''"'-' moves of the giant Sequoia, 



near kin of the Iicdwoi ' v.-ast ranges, whose trunks are 



from fifty to ninel ^H^arence, and whose height is 



