se changes pay little heed to them; but to
new-comers the temperature of the shade, and even that of the
interiors of the hotels and houses, appears decidedly cool.

[Illustration: NOT AFRAID OF THE SUN.]

One day, in June, I was invited to dine at a fruit-ranch a few miles
from Pasadena. The heat in the sun was intense, and I noticed that
the mercury indicated ninety-five degrees; but, unlike the atmosphere
of New York in a heated term, the air did not remind me of a Turkish
bath. The heat of Southern California is dry, and it is absolutely
true that the highest temperature of an arid region rarely entails as
much physical discomfort as a temperature fifteen or twenty degrees
lower in the Eastern States, when accompanied by humidity. The
moisture in a torrid atmosphere is what occasions most of the
distress and danger, the best proof of which is the fact that while,
every summer, hundreds of people are prostrated by sunstroke near the
Atlantic coast, such a calamity has never occurred in New Mexico,
Arizona, or California. Moreover, when the mercury in Los Angeles
rises, as it occasionally does, to one hundred degrees, the
inhabitants of that city have a choice of several places of refuge:
in two or three hours they can reach the mountains; or in an hour
they can enjoy themselves upon Redondo Beach; or they may take a
trolley car and, sixty minutes later, stroll along the sands of Santa
Monica, inhaling a refreshing breeze, blowing practically straight
from Japan; or, if none of these resorts is sufficiently attractive,
three hours after leaving Los Angeles they can fish on Santa Catalina
Island, a little off the coast; or linger in the groves of Santa
Barbara; or, perhaps, best of all can be invigorated by the saline
breath of the Pacific sweeping through the corridors of the Coronado.
Santa Catalina Island is, in particular, a delightful pleasure-resort,
whose beautiful, transparent waters, remarkable fishing-grounds, and
soft, though tonic-giving air, which comes to it from every point of
the compass over a semi-tropic sea, are so alluring that thousands of
contented people often overflow its hotels and camp in tents along
the beach.

[Illustration: IN COTTONWOOD CANON, SANTA CATALINA.]

[Illustration: LILIPUTIAN AND GIANT.]

[Illustration: ON THE BEACH AT SANTA CATALINA.]

That the winter climate of Southern California, not only on the
coast, but in the interior, is delightful, is beyond question. What
was