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CLIMATE. 25 
happiness of a man who wishes to take life easy, and do noth- 
ing. Indeed, all the valleys embosomed in the Coast Moun- 
tains, from Humboldt Bay to Santa Barbara, have beautiful 
climes, which will compare favorably, I think, with the best 
of Italy. The summer days are always warm, rarely hot; the 
mornings and evenings are clear and pleasant; in winter, ice 
never forms over two inches in thickness, and if snow falls, it 
never lies twenty-four “hours. 
§ 22. Clear Days ——On an average, there are two hundred 
and twenty perfectly clear days in a year, without a cloud; 
eighty-five days wherein clouds are seen, though in many of 
them the sun is visible; and sixty rainy. Italy cannot surpass 
that. New York has scarcely half so many perfectly clear 
days. From the first of April till the first of November, there 
are in ordinary seasons fifteen cloudy days; and from the first 
of November till the first of April, half the days are clear. It 
often happens that weeks upon weeks in winter, and months 
upon months in summer, pass without a cloud; that is, at a 
distance of thirty miles from the ocean. Near the shore, coast- 
clouds are frequently blown up from the sea, but they disap- 
pear after ten o’clock in the morning. 
§ 23. The Sirocco.—One case, and only one, is on record, 
of a sirocco, or burning-hot wind, visiting the coast. This one 
was felt. at the town of Santa Barbara, in latitude 34° 20’, on 
the ocean-shore, on the 17th of June, 1859. The Gazette news- 
paper of that place, published six days afterward, said: 
“Friday, 17th June, will be long remembered by the inhab- 
itants of Santa Barbara, from the burning, blasting heat expe- 
rienced that day, and the effects thereof. Indeed, it is said 
that, for the space of thirty years, nothing in comparison has 
_been felt in this county, and, we doubt, in any other. The 
sun rose like a ball of fire on that day; but though quite warm, 
no inconvenience was caused thereby until two o’clock, P. u., 
when suddenly a blast of heated air swept through our streets, 
followed quickly by others; and shortly afterward the atmo- 
‘ sphere became so intensely heated, that no human being could 
