towards them and the result
of their institutions. A change is about to take place; what that
change will be, it is difficult to say; but a few years will decide the
question.

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

Having now related the principal events which I witnessed, or in which I
was an actor, both in California and in Texas, as these countries are
still new and but little known (for, indeed, the Texians themselves know
nothing of their inland country), I will attempt a topographical sketch
of these regions, and also make some remarks upon the animals which
inhabit the immense prairies and mountains of the wilderness.

Along the shores of the Pacific Ocean, from the 42 degrees down to the
34 degrees North, the climate is much the same; the only difference
between the winter and summer being that the nights of the former season
are a little chilly. The causes of this mildness in the temperature are
obvious. The cold winds of the north, rendered sharper still by passing
over the snows and ices of the great northern lakes, cannot force their
passage across the rocky chain south of the latitude 44 degrees North,
being prevented by a belt of high mountains or by impenetrable forests.
To the eastward, on the contrary, they are felt very severely; not
encountering any kind of obstacles, they sweep their course to the very
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, so that in 26 degrees North latitude, on
the southern boundaries of Texas, winter is still winter; that is to
say, fire is necessary in the apartments during the month of January,
and flannel and cloth dresses are worn; while, on the contrary, the same
month on the shores of the Pacific, up to 40 degrees, is mild enough to
allow strangers from the south, and even the Sandwich islanders, to wear
their light nankeen trowsers and gingham round-abouts.

There is also a wide difference between the two coasts of the continent
during summer. In Upper California and the Shoshone territory, although
the heat, from the rays of the sun, is intense, the temperature is so
cooled both by the mountain and sea-breeze, as never to raise the
mercury to more than 95 degrees Fahrenheit, even in San Diego, which
lies under the parallel of 32 degrees 39 minutes; while in the east,
from 27 degrees in South Texas, and 30 degrees at New Orleans, up to 49
degrees upon Lake Superior, the mercury rises to 100 degrees every year,
and frequently 105 degrees, 107 degrees in Saint Louis, in Prairie du
Chien,