326 
CALIFORNIA 
nortli flow through the length of these valleys and enter the 
northern end of the great hay of San Francisco, an inland water 
35 miles long and averaging 8 miles in breadth. There great 
navies ride at anchor, contending peacefully for some of the 
richest commerce of the world. 
There is one other particular in which the natural wealth of 
California surpasses that of any other state. There are more 
than one hundred mineral springs, that together po.ssess all tlie 
remedial qualities that are found in the most notable mineral 
springs of Europe. Hardly more than half of the whole num- 
ber that are known to exist in the state have ever had any 
scientific description. All known minerals that have any heal- 
ing qualities are held in solution in these waters. Some of these 
springs have more than local fame for their curative effects. 
Sulphur, iron, arsenic, and soda are sometimes found in a single 
group of springs, as at the geysers, where the waters boil and 
seethe and roar, sending up clouds of steam day and night, as if, 
after the spent volcanic forces, the bedevilment of nature was pro- 
longed for the entertainment of tourist and stranger. Wherever 
one may go, in all the length and breadth of the state, the series 
of striking pictures never fails. Nothing is tame or insignificant ; 
nothing, from the winter bloom of gardens, with all the affluence 
of color and })erfume, to the mountains that are tipped with gold 
and purple as the sun sinks into the Pacific. 
In one other particular California has greater natural wealth 
than any other state. Not elsewhere in all the Union are there 
so many climates. No non-resident ever quite gets to the bottom 
of this mystery. He will read of trains beleagured by snow- 
drifts in the mountains, and on the same page of almond and 
orange orchards in bloom ; of ice that is cut out in solid blocks 
on mountain lakes, and of the mercury that marks 75 degrees of 
heat in some other ])lace ; of men in overcoats in San Francisco 
in Jul}', and of the mercuiy that has gone up to 100 degrees in 
some of the interior valleys. The mean temperature of San 
Francisco for the whole year is 54 degrees, the means for the 
four seasons being 54, 57, 56, and 50 degrees, a difference of only 
seven degrees for the entire year. There is a coast climate, an 
interior valley climate, and a mountain climate, with a great 
number of subdivisions. Going north ten miles to the small 
town of San Rafael there is a difference in. the summer climate 
of not less than 10 degrees. Riding for two hours by rail from 
the coast inland to the San Joaquin valley the difference will 
