CLIMATE. 19 
CHAPTER II. 
CLIMATE. 
§ 20. General Remarks.—The climate of California is un- 
like that of every other country, and particularly dissimilar to 
that of the American states east of the Rocky Mountains. In 
general character it resembles the climate of western Europe. 
Its chief peculiarities, as distinguished from the Eastern states, 
are, that the winters are warmer; the summers—especially at 
night—cooler; the changes from heat to cold not so great nor 
so frequent; the quantity of rain less, and confined principally 
to the winter and spring months; the atmosphere drier; the 
cloudy days fewer; thunder, lightning, hail, snow and ice, and 
the aurora borealis, rarer; the winds more regular—blowing 
from the north for fuir weather, and from the south for storms ; 
and earthquakes more frequent. 
The state reaches through nine and a quarter ‘legrees of lati- 
tude, from 32° 45’ to 42°, San Diego being as far south as 
Charleston, and Crescent City as far north as Providence. 
Much of the Golden state has the -winter of South Carolina, 
and the summer of Rhode Island. The orange, the lemon, the 
olive, the fig, the pomegranate, the vine, the peach, the apple, 
wheat, and barley, all find most congenial climes in Califor 
nia. 
The state, indeed, has many climates: one for the western 
slope of the Coast range between Point Conception and Cape 
Mendocino; another for the low land of the Sacramento Basin ; 
