. The "Native Daughters," a sister society, follows also
the idea of keeping the love of California warm in the hearts of her
children.

[Illustration: FALLEN LEAF LAKE.]

[Illustration: MOUNT SHASTA FROM STRAWBERRY VALLEY.]

OUR GLORIOUS CLIMATE

Not only a glorious but in many ways a wonderful climate is enjoyed
by the people of California's sea-coast and mountains, her valleys and
foot-hills. In no other state can one find so many kinds of weather
in such short distances. For instance, in Southern California you may
pick flowers and oranges in almost tropical gardens, and in an hour
find winter and throw snowballs on the high mountains overlooking the
roses and orange groves you so lately left.

Only in the mountains, along that granite backbone of the state known
as the Sierra Nevadas, are there four seasons, the spring, summer,
autumn, and winter common to most of the United States. So the Sierras
have a distinct climate of their own. The Sacramento and San Joaquin
river valleys have another climate peculiar to themselves, while south
of latitude 35 degrees the coast has less rain and is warmer than the
coast counties north of that line.

In the greater part of the state the year is divided into a dry summer
and a wet winter. The rains begin in October, and the first showers
fall on dry, brown hills and dusty fields baked hard by steady
sunshine since May. After these showers the grass springs up, and
the fields are green almost as quickly as if some fairy godmother had
waved her wand. An army of wild flowers, whose seeds were hidden in
the brown earth, wakes when the rain-drops patter, and the plants get
ready to bloom in a month or so. For this season, from November to
February, with little frost and no ice nor snow, is winter in name
only. Roses and violets bloom in the gardens and yellow poppies on the
hills.

People expect and hope for much rain in this so-called winter, since a
wet year assures good crops to the state. But the amount of rain that
falls is very uncertain. It does not rain every day, nor all day, as a
rule, and each storm seems different. Sometimes a "southeaster" blows
up from the Japan Current, or Black Stream, as the Japanese call the
warm, dark-blue waters that pour out of the China Sea. This current of
the Pacific Ocean flows along our coast in a mighty river a thousand
miles wide, and gives California its peculiar climate of cool summers
and moist, warm winters. The south