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VARIETIES. 
lashes  the  coast  of  California  with  so  remarkable  regularity,  almost  every 
afternoon  throughout  the  summer  months,  driving  the  sand  through  the  air, 
and  compelling  people  to  put  on  over-coats  and  kindle  fires,  even  under  that 
cloudless  sky  and  in  those  low  latitudes.  As  this  cold  air  from  the  ocean 
is  warmed  by  the  land,  of  course  its  capacity  for  holding  moisture  is  in- 
creased, and  instead  of  there  being  any  tendency  to  form  clouds  and  to 
to  rain,  it  becomes  a  very  drying  air,  absorbing  water  from  everything 
that  it  touches.  This  is  the  very  simple  and  plain  explanation  of  the  dry 
season. 
The  most  wonderful  phenomenon  of  the  California  climates,  is  the  marked 
manner  in  which  they  are  cut  in  two  by  no  higher  chain  of  mountains  than 
the  Coast  Range.    This  range  extends  along  the  coast  of  California  from 
latitude  34|  to  41|,  and  is  so  low,  that  snow  collects  during  the  winter 
only  on  a  few  of  the  highest  peaks.    Now,  while  the  western  side  of  this 
range  has  the  cold  summer  above  described,  the  valley  on  the  east  side  is 
one  of  the  hottest  portions  of  the  earth.    This  valley,  through  which  flow, 
in  opposite  directions,  the  waters  of  the  Sacramento  and  the  San  Joaquin, 
extends  about  400  miles  from  north  to  south,  with  an  average  breadth  of 
perhaps  60  miles,  from  the  Coast  Range  on  the  west  to  the  Sierra  Nevada 
on  the  east.    It  is  a  very  flat  valley,  much  more  level  than  the  western 
prairies,  and  occupies  the  great  portion  of  the  interior  of  California.  It  has 
been  quite  difficult  to  obtain  exposures  of  a  thermometer  which  were  unob- 
jectional.    In  the  cloth  tents  and  stores  which  were  in  use  in  1849  and  '50, 
the  temperature  would  range  in  the  warm  days  from  115°  to  120°.  On 
the  north  side  of  a  large  tree,  also  in  a  wooden  cabin  covered  with  earth, 
a  friend  of  the  writer  observed  the  mercury  at  110°  and  112°  during  many 
of  the  days  of  1850.    On  the  north  side  of  a  large  two-story  frame  house, 
with  but  one  other  house  near,  and  that  one  several  rods  distant,  the  writer 
has  observed  the  mercury  at  109°.    But  Dr.  Haille  at  Marysville,  by  hang- 
ing his  thermometer  in  a  draft  of  air  in  the  back  part  of  his  office,  where  it 
was  shaded  by  high  buildings  around,  succeeded  in  keeping  the  mercury 
down  to  102°  during  the  summer  of  1852.    The  sun  rises  clear  in  the  east, 
rolls  up  over  the  heads  of  the  inhabitants,  drying  and  scorching  everything 
in  sight,  and  sinks  in  the  west—"  One  unclouded  blaze  of  living  light." 
And  this  is  repeated  day  after  day,  and  month  after  month.    The  hottest 
time  of  day  is  about  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon.     The  nights  are  cool ; 
you  need  two  or  three  blankets  to  sleep  comfortably  even  in  the  hottest  part 
of  the  summer.    A  plate  of  butter  set  in  a  common  wooden  house,  will  be 
perfectly  liquid  at  night,  and  entirely  hard  in  the  morning,  and  these 
changes  will  occur  every  twenty-four  hours  for  months  in  succession. 
The  change  from  the  cold  climate  of  the  coast  to  the  heat  of  the  valley 
is  marvellous.  You  go  on  board  a  steamboat  at  San  Francisco  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  find  the  passengers  all  dressed  in  winter 
clothing,  flannels  and  overcoats,  huddled  around  the  stove  in  the  cabin 
with  its  hot  anthracite  fire.    The  next  morning  at  sun-rise,  you  find 
