CLIMATE OF SAN DIEGO. 87 
. Jesuit missionaries. These trees give quite a tropical aspect 
- to the scenery. 
Besides its fine bay, the boast of San Diego is its climate, 
which for mildness and salubrity excels that of the most 
- famous spots within our natural limits. By the meteorological 
record kept here when the place was a military station, the 
minimum temperature was 40°, and the maximum 82° Fahr. 
_ Frost and snow are of course unknown; and at all seasons of 
the year the mild, delightful sea-breezé sets in about ten 
o'clock in the morning. The death of a resident is looked 
upon as a remarkable event; and when I was introduced to 
the resident physician, his dilapidated appearance told plainly 
_of a very small visiting list. ‘‘ Why, sir,” said he, leaning 
forward with his hands on his knees, and throwing an amount 
of earnestness into his dilated eyes which I cannot describe, 
“why, sir, a physician would starve to death if he depended 
on his practice for a living!” 
I would here state that the San Diego River is every winter 
bringing down from the mountains a large quantity of sand, 
and depositing it in the bay just opposite its entrance, thereby 
gradually silting up that part of the harbour. This can be 
easily and cheaply remedied. Just north of the harbour 1s 
another basin—a false bay separated from it by a narrow flat 5 
and it is proposed to direct the waters of the river into this 
hitherto useless basin. 
_ Southern California, so far as it is yet known, and in the ; 
- opinion of eminent geologists, is not rich in useful or precious 
“minerals, Gold has been found in a few places, as also 
copper, but neither as yet pays for the labour bestowed upon 
it. Tin has been found near Temecula, but is believed to 
exist only in pockets. 
Indications of coal were observed thirteen years ago on the 
