taken from two or three different points, but I do not know what the
indications were as to quality. Brimstone, saltpetre, muriate and
carbonate of soda, and bitumen, are abundant. There is little doubt
that California is as rich in minerals of all kinds as any portion of
Mexico.

I have taken much pains to describe to the reader, from day to day, and
at different points during my travels in California, the temperature
and weather. It is rarely so cold in the settled portions of California
as to congeal water. But twice only while here I saw ice, and then not
thicker than window-glass. I saw no snow resting upon the ground. The
annual rains commence in November, and continue, with intervals of
pleasant springlike weather, until May. From May to November, usually,
no rain falls. There are, however, exceptions. Rain sometimes falls in
August. The thermometer, at any season of the year, rarely sinks below
50 deg. or rises above 80 deg.. In certain positions on the coast, and
especially at San Francisco, the winds rise diurnally, and blowing
fresh upon the shore render the temperature cool in midsummer. In the
winter the wind blows from the land, and the temperature at these
points is warmer. These local peculiarities of climate are not
descriptive of the general climate of the interior.

For salubrity I do not think there is any climate in the world superior
to that of the coast of California. I was in the country nearly a year,
exposed much of the time to great hardships and privations, sleeping,
for the most part, in the open air, and I never felt while there the
first pang of disease, or the slightest indication of bad health. On
some portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, where
vegetation is rank, and decays in the autumn, the malaria produces
chills and fever, but generally the attacks are slight, and yield
easily to medicine. The atmosphere is so pure and preservative along
the coast, that I never saw putrified flesh, although I have seen, in
midsummer, dead carcasses lying exposed to the sun and weather for
months. They emitted no offensive smell. There is but little disease in
the country arising from the climate.

The botany and flora of California are rich, and will hereafter form a
fruitful field of discovery to the naturalist. There are numerous
plants reported to possess extraordinary medical virtues. The
"soap-plant" (_amole_) is one which appears to be among the most
serviceable. The root, wh