the highest and most luxuriant vegetation. The theory is that the
interaction of the desert and ocean winds will always keep it as it is,
whatever man may do. I can only say that, as it is, I doubt if it has
its equal the year round for agreeableness and healthfulness in our
Union; and it is the testimony of those whose experience of the best
Mediterranean climate is more extended and much longer continued than
mine, that it is superior to any on that enclosed sea. About this great
harbor, whose outer beach has an extent of twenty-five miles, whose
inland circuit of mountains must be over fifty miles, there are great
varieties of temperature, of shelter and exposure, minute subdivisions
of climate, whose personal fitness can only be attested by experience.
There is a great difference, for instance, between the quality of the
climate at the elevation of the Florence Hotel, San Diego, and the
University Heights on the mesa above the town, and that on the long
Coronado Beach which protects the inner harbor from the ocean surf. The
latter, practically surrounded by water, has a true marine climate, but
a peculiar and dry marine climate, as tonic in its effect as that of
Capri, and, I believe, with fewer harsh days in the winter season. I
wish to speak with entire frankness about this situation, for I am sure
that what so much pleases me will suit a great number of people, who
will thank me for not being reserved. Doubtless it will not suit
hundreds of people as well as some other localities in Southern
California, but I found no other place where I had the feeling of
absolute content and willingness to stay on indefinitely. There is a
geniality about it for which the thermometer does not account, a charm
which it is difficult to explain. Much of the agreeability is due to
artificial conditions, but the climate man has not made nor marred.

The Coronado Beach is about twelve miles long. A narrow sand promontory,
running northward from the main-land, rises to the Heights, then
broadens into a table-land, which seems to be an island, and measures
about a mile and a half each way; this is called South Beach, and is
connected by another spit of sand with a like area called North Beach,
which forms, with Point Loma, the entrance to the harbor. The North
Beach, covered partly with chaparral and broad fields of barley, is
alive with quail, and is a favorite coursing-ground for rabbits. The
soil, which appears uninviting, is with wa