710 THE RESOURCES AND CLIMATE OF CALIFORNIA. 
ship of three thousand tons, I saw, on a single day's ride, 
enough pine trees from one to two hundred feet high, 
straight as an arrow, to furnish masts for all the vessels in 
the world, without perceptibly thinning the primeval forest. 
The climate is unequalled in salubrity. In San Francisco 
a sea-breeze sets in from the ocean at three or four o’clock 
on a summer afternoon, rendering the air rather cooler than 
suits one not acclimated ; but this is not experienced in the 
winter, and the average temperature of the winter is rather 
higher than that of the summer. Only a few miles from the 
coast the force of the ocean-breeze is spent. There the sum- 
mer days are very hot, but the air is so pure that the ther- 
mometer of one’s own consciousness is much below Fahren- 
heit’s, and I found it as easy to take a long and brisk wall at 
the temperature of a hundred degrees, as it would be in 
New England at seventy-five. The night air is inexpressibly 
sweet and mild, so that one would not care whether he lodged 
within doors or under the star-gemmed roof. It is no un- 
common thing to have the windows of lodging apartments 
taken out, and laid aside as useless, from the early spring till 
the autumn. The atmosphere, even in midsummer, is so en- 
tirely free from malaria, that lamb or veal hung up in the 
open air will dry before it becomes tainted ; and outside of 
farmhouses and hotels we often see, suspended on trees, 
locked safes covered with wire-gauze, in which fresh meat 
may be preserved sound and sweet for several weeks. 
For seven or eight months in the year rain never falls. 
The grass, indeed, looks brown; but the trees, which strike 
their roots down into soil still moist, retain their verdure, 
and for the various crops of grain and vegetables artificial 
irrigation is extensively employed, — windmills for raising 
water being used, not only on farms, but in orchards, and 
often in private gardens. ‘The whole country is diversified 
by gentle elevations — foot-hills, as they are called — which 
generally furnish perennial fountains that are led among the 
valleys, unfailing sources of fertility and wealth. The cli- 
