the winter to 57 in the summer, averaging 51^**; and
at San Diego, in the south, it ranges as the extreoies
from 52 to 71 degrees,^ while the average of summer
and winter and night and day does not vary over ten
degrees.
In summer an equilibrium is approached; in winter the tiresome reserve is broken. By early autumn a wide-spread deadness obtains ; the hills wear a bleached appearance, the smaller streams are empty, the plain is parched and dusty, the soil cracked in fissures from excessive dryness; green fields have turned sere and yellow, and the weeds snap like glass when trodden on. It is the period of nature s repose. The grass is not dead, but sleepeth. When the winter rains begin, in November, after a respite of six months, vegetal life revives; the softened soil puts on fresh garments; the arid waste blossoms into a garden. The cooler air of winter condenses the vapor-laden winds of ocean, which, during the preceding months, are sapped of their moisture by the hot and thirsty air. And all this is effected with only half the amount of rain fall- ing in the Atlantic states, the average at San Fran- cisco being little over twenty inches annually, at Sacramento one tenth less, and at San Diego one half; while in the farther north the fall is heavier and more evenly distributed.
In this dry, exhilarating atmosphere the effect of the sun is not so depressing as in moister regions, and with cool, refreshing nights, the hottest days are bear- able. It is one of the most vitalizing of climates for mind and body, ever stimulating to activity and en- joyment. Land and sea vie with each other in life- giving supremacy, while man steps in to enjoy the benefits. When the one rises in undue warmth, the other frowns it down ; when one grows cold and sul- len, the other beams in happy sunshine. Winds and
•* Severe extremes are confined to a few torrid spots like Fort Yuma, and to the summits of the eastern ranges. Ck>mpreheuBive data on climate in HiUeWa Comm, and IiidwU
