California of the South; Its Physical Geography, Climate, Resources, Routes of Travel, and Health-Resorts; Being a Complete Guide-Book to - Livres de poche

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: California, but also upon that of the deserts lying at the east base of the Sierra. Their influence upon the future trade development of the coast will be noted under a different heading. The Mojave Desert, lying beyond those passes which open northward, has an area of several thousand square miles, with an elevation above the sea of some two thousand feet. The Colorado Desert, which lies opposite the passes leading eastward, is somewhat less in area, and has a portion of its surface three hundred and fifty feet below the level of the sea. The channel islands are eight in number, stretching along the coast for a hundred and fifty miles. Six of these are of considerable size, varying from twelve to twenty-five miles in length and from five to ten miles in width. Rainfall. The division of the year into a wet and a dry season is found in the central Pacific belt, and applies also to the southern belt. The counter-trades of the North Pacific coast, following the sun southward in the autumn, reach the coast of Southern California shortly after the rains have begun in the northern portion of the State. The first rain may come anywhere from the middle of October until the middle of November. A south wind comes in from the sea; clouds bank up along the southern horizon, and then about the mountain-tops, and broken, rainy weather, lasting for several days, follows, during which time the precipitation amounts to from two to three inches. This first rain may also give snow in the mountains, but not always, nor to any great depth. After three or four weeks of clear, pleasant weather, comes another rain, much like the first, and this time generally with a decided snowfall in the mountains, as the temperature is now showing the winter coolness. These rains wash the atmo...