me still worthy of the steadiest nerves, and good
bird-shooting everywhere. There are mountains to climb, canons to
explore, lovely valleys in the recesses of the hills to be
discovered--in short, one disposed to activity and not afraid of
roughing it could occupy himself most agreeably and healthfully in the
wild parts of San Bernardino and San Diego counties; he may even still
start a grizzly in the Sierra Madre range in Los Angeles County. Hunting
and exploring in the mountains, riding over the mesas, which are green
from the winter rains and gay with a thousand delicate grasses and
flowering plants, is manly occupation to suit the most robust and
adventurous. Those who saunter in the trim gardens, or fly from one
hotel parlor to the other, do not see the best of Southern California in
the winter.

CHAPTER VII.

THE WINTER ON THE COAST.

But the distinction of this coast, and that which will forever make it
attractive at the season when the North Atlantic is forbidding, is that
the ocean-side is as equable, as delightful, in winter as in summer. Its
sea-side places are truly all-the-year-round resorts. In subsequent
chapters I shall speak in detail of different places as to climate and
development and peculiarities of production. I will now only give a
general idea of Southern California as a wintering place. Even as far
north as Monterey, in the central part of the State, the famous Hotel
del Monte, with its magnificent park of pines and live-oaks, and
exquisite flower-gardens underneath the trees, is remarkable for its
steadiness of temperature. I could see little difference between the
temperature of June and of February. The difference is of course
greatest at night. The maximum the year through ranges from about 65 deg. to
about 80 deg., and the minimum from about 35 deg. to about 58 deg., though there are
days when the thermometer goes above 90 deg., and nights when it falls below
30 deg..

[Illustration: ROSE-BUSH, SANTA BARBARA.]

To those who prefer the immediate ocean air to that air as modified by
such valleys as the San Gabriel and the Santa Ana, the coast offers a
variety of choice in different combinations of sea and mountain climate
all along the southern sunny exposure from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
In Santa Barbara County the Santa Inez range of mountains runs westward
to meet the Pacific at Point Conception. South of this noble range are a
number of little valleys opening to the sea,