TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
341 
The Valley of the San Joaquim and its extension toward the 
head of the Gulf of California is exceedingly hot and sultry. 
The Marine range on the west effectually prevents the sea 
breezes from reaching it; and if any other winds are active, the 
monotonous level of the northern portion, the short sharp sand 
hills of the southern, and the long lines of wood which encircle 
the prairies and fringe the streams, prevent their circulation, 
and produce there, in a high northern Latitude, all the heat 
and consequent discomforts of the torrid zone. 
The climate of the Valley of the Sacramento is exceedingly 
various. Near the mouth of that stream, and northward 
eighty miles to the forks, the heat of the summer sun is in¬ 
tense ; but is much modified by occasional showers, and the 
humid breezes from the Bay of San Francisco. Higher up 
among the narrow prairies, along the banks of both forks 
and their tributaries, the dashing of cascades, the shading 
influences of lofty and wooded mountains, and the rich carpet¬ 
ing of a luxuriant vegetation, produce a temperature, than 
which a more desirable cannot be found in any country. An 
incomparably fine soil, nestled in long and delicately curved 
lines among scenery of the wildest mountain cast, with water 
from the overlooking snows and glaciers, and fanned by air 
which can claim kindred with that of Italy or Greece, is a 
collection of excellences which are found, I believe, on that 
spot alone in North America. The climate of the territory 
lying between that just described and the sea, and for forty 
miles around the Bay of San Francisco, is equally fine, with 
the exception that heavy fogs press up from the Bay and the 
Pacific during a portion of the summer months. But this is 
to be deemed rather a good than an evil; for moisture is 
thereby distilled over the thirsty ground during the dry sea¬ 
son ; and the breezes which bear it over the land, come 
freighted with the cooler atmosphere of the sea, to temper the 
air, and render it more healthful and agreeable. 
The climate of that portion of the Californias which lies 
betwee n the Marine range and the sea, has called forth ex- 
