lone, that the benefits derived in these regions by persons
suffering from consumption and kindred diseases should be
credited.

Proximity to large bodies of water, river valleys, and damp
plateaus are undesirable as places of residence for invalids
with lung troubles. There are exceptions to this rule.
Localities near the sea with a climate subject to slight
variations in temperature, a dry atmosphere, little rainfall,
much sunshine, not so cold in winter as to prevent much
out-door life and not so hot in summer as to make out-door
exercise exhausting, are well adapted not only to troubles of
the nervous and circulatory systems, but also to those of the
respiratory organs.

Such a climate is found in the extreme southern portions of
California. At San Diego the rainfall is much less, the air is
drier, and the number of sunshiny days very much larger than on
our Atlantic seaboard, or in Central and Northern California.
The winters are not cold; flowers bloom in the open air all the
year round; the summers are not hot. The mountains and sea
combine to give to this region a climate with few sudden
changes, and with a comfortable range of all essential
elements.

A residence during a part of the winter of 1889-90 at Coronado
Beach, and a somewhat careful study of the comparative
climatology of the south-western portions of the United States,
leads me to think that we have few localities where the
comforts of life can be secured, and which at the same time are
so well adapted to the needs of a variety of invalids, as San
Diego and its surroundings. In saying this I do not wish to be
understood as preferring it to all others for some one
condition or disease, but only that for weak hearts, disabled
lungs, and worn-out nerves it seems to me to be unsurpassed.

CHICAGO, _July 12, 1890_.

THE COMING OF WINTER IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

From Mr. Theodore S. Van Dyke's altogether admirable book on _Southern
California_ I have permission to quote the following exquisite
description of the floral procession from December to March, when the
Land of the Sun is awakened by the first winter rain:

Sometimes this season commences with a fair rain in November,
after a light shower or two in October, but some of the very
best