ration on this coast.

The general health, however, of San Francisco is shown to be, by the
same authority, better than that of the average of large cities in the
older States.

While the temperature in winter at San Francisco is maintained at a
comparatively high point,--allowing the outdoor cultivation of some of
the hardier varieties of flowering shrubs,--the atmosphere, meanwhile,
is damp and chilling, and extremely detrimental to most cases of lung
difficulties.

The climate of California is, in the neighborhood of San Francisco, and
northward, divided into two distinct seasons,--that of the wet and dry.
The wet season begins usually in November, and terminates in May, while
the dry season embraces the remaining portion of the year. Of course the
length of either varies considerably, as do all our seasons everywhere
in the temperate latitudes. The quantity of rain falling in this wet
season equals that of the entire fall for New England,[G] and coming in
the cooler portion of the year has just those demerits, to a
considerable, though modified degree, which inhere in the climate of the
Atlantic coast, of which we have spoken elsewhere in detail.

The southern portion of California, however, presents a radical dry
climate, and is quite free from those wet and dry seasons which obtain
in central and northern California. The amount of annual rain-fall is,
in the region of

SAN DIEGO,

about ten inches, and while it is true that this precipitation is in
sympathy with, and indeed is distributed over a portion of what is known
as the "wet season," in Upper California, yet it does not amount to
enough in quantity to establish a wet season. The balance of the year
the air is dry and elastic, and highly favorable, so far as we are able
to judge, to all cases of pulmonary troubles.

San Diego is an old Spanish town, and for many years has been neglected,
and not till recently has it shown much signs of recuperation. But, now
that some Yankee pioneers have settled in the town and neighborhood, its
prospects brighten.

Fruits of all kinds, such as peaches, oranges, figs, and plums flourish
in the neighborhood, and in time must form one of the chief articles of
commerce. Few places offer so good an opportunity for stock-grazing as
does this fertile region.

This old city is, ere long, to become the terminus of one of our great
continental lines of railway, namely, the Southern Pacific.

Access is had, at the pres