Esoteric V10: July 1896 - Iapsop.com

460 C.U.IFORNIA AS 'VE SEE IT. [April
One of the evidenC'.es of this being land recently surrendered
by the aea is seen in the Coast Range, in what i~ called the
•• Red-wood Belt.'' These peaks are exceedingly steep and the
ground very soft, so mucb so that, in walking down one of these
steeps, a man will sink up to his ankles in the soil. During
the period of the spring rains large quantities of this soil are
being annually carried into the valleys. After a loog hard
rain, when there is not sufficient air stirring to move a leaf on
the trees, the giant redwoods are falling in every direction as
though tbooaands of woodmen were cutting them down. In.
the eaetern part of this continent, the stleep hills have rocky
peaks which prevent them from being waahed down, but here
the soil ia frequently very loose froiD the top to the bottom of
the bill; aad the amount of soil annn31ly carried down from
•heae bills would, in a few hundred years, reduce them to tbe
leYel.of the vaUeya.
The immense size of the sequoia gigantea. is adduced by soientiate
aa ooe ol the evidenoes of this being an old country: they
oeuat the rings or grains of this tree as the years of ita growth.
But as t.he climate here varies so little, ellpecially in the n'ff.
wood belt. we have reasons fnr &Merting that eevt"ral of theae
rings are formed every year, and that tbe11e t.reeR grow with
perhaps greater rapidity than those found in any other part of
tbe world. This is evidenoed in the experience nf the early
Rettlers of this country. . A rancher who had taken up a tr~w.t
of land in the redwood belt showed us a redwood tree which,
we should judge, was about three feet in diameter, gruwing uear
his house, and he said to .us, •• When I came here, four or five
years ago, that tree was no bigger than my ankle." So much
for th" redwood.
Now as to atm08pheric C'.ondition!l :-In the part of California
in which we are loca.te.l there are from four to 11ix feet of r:ainfall
yearly; and all this rain fall" in a compar11.tively short
11pa.oe of time. In September or October we have the early
rain,- usually just enough to wash off the dust and freshen up
tbe whole country, changing a hot atmosphere to one that is
cool and invigorating. After thill the weather frequently remains
sunny and most delightful until February, with little
Digitized by Coogle