38 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
§ 28. Dryness of Climate.—The small amount of rain dur- 
ing the winter, the entire want of it during the summer, the 
warmth of the sun, and the great number of cloudless days, 
render the climate a very dry one. As one conseqence or ac- 
companiment of our dry climate and clear sky, it may be worth 
while to observe that near the ocean the clouds are rarely pic- 
turesque or sublimely beautiful. The magnificent sunsets, 
where the god of light goes down amid curtains of gold and 
crimson—those high-piled banks of clouds which adorn the 
heavens before and after thunder-showers, in the Mississippi 
valley—are never seen near the coast. 
Dew is very rare or slight over a great part of the state. 
During the summer and autumn, many of the rivers sink in 
the sand soon after leaving the mountains in which they rise ; 
the earth is dry and baked hard to a depth of many inches or 
even feet; the grass and herbage, except near springs, or on 
swampy land, are dried up, and as brown as the soil on which 
they grew. 
It has been said that very hot days are less oppressive in 
California than equal heat in the Eastern states, because the 
cool nights serve to invigorate the system, and the extreme 
dryness of the climate favors the evaporation of sweat, and 
thus keeps the body cooler than in districts where the earth is 
always moist. Evaporation is so rapid, that a beefsteak hung 
up in the air will dry before it can commence to putrefy. A 
dead rat thrown into the street, where its body is crushed by 
wagon-wheels so that its viscera are exposed to the air, will 
“dry up,” and its stiff hide and meat will lie during a whole 
summer in a mummy-like condition. In many places, steel 
may be exposed to the night air for weeks without getting a 
touch of rust. 
It is common to ascribe the effects of the dryness of the 
atmosphere to the “purity” of the air; but it is rather the 
absence of moisture. I know no reason for supposing that, 
apart from its dryness, the air in California is purer than in 
any other part of the continent. It may be, however, that tie 
