California surprises with a geography, climate, vegetation,
beasts, birds, fishes even, unlike ours; the land immense; the
Pacific sea; Steam brings the near neighborhood of Asia; and
South America at your feet; the mountains reaching the altitude
of Mont Blanc; the State in its six hundred miles of latitude
producing all our Northern fruits, and also the fig, orange, and
banana. But the climate chiefly surprised me. The Almanac said
April; but the day said June;--and day after day for six weeks
uninterrupted sunshine. November and December are the rainy
months. The whole Country, was covered with flowers, and all of
them unknown to us except in greenhouses. Every bird that I know
at home is represented here, but in gayer plumes.
On the plains we saw multitudes of antelopes, hares, gophers,--
even elks, and one pair of wolves on the plains; the grizzly
bear only in a cage. We crossed one region of the buffalo, but
only saw one captive. We found Indians at every railroad
station,--the squaws and papooses begging, and the "bucks," as
they wickedly call them, lounging.
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