The face of the country being broken up into mountains and having large valleys separating the two coast ranges of mountains into the sea coast range on the west, and the spurs of the Sierra Nevada on the East, offers an ample ground for the shepherd and agriculturalist. The valleys south of San Francisco Bay lie almost parallel with the sea coast, gradually receding with it in a South-east direction. This gives an opportunity for the North-west winds, which prevail on the coast, to sweep over them, and thus temper the heat of the sun, renovate the air, and carry away over the snowy mountains any _miasmata_ that might be suspended in the atmosphere, and which if left undisturbed might prove a prolific source of disease. This accounts for the extreme healthiness of the sea coast of California. The portion of the country that is less salubrious than the rest of it is confined between the Sacramento and the San Joaquin; fevers seem to be dominant there, yet even there people can get acclimated and enjoy good health for years. In point of climate San Francisco and San Diego present a striking contrast. The former being so much exposed to the North-west winds has a very disagreeable temperature; but it is nothing more than disagreeable, as fogs and winds have their periods there; it is however, far from being unhealthy; with ordinary care and prudence, one in a few months gets acclimated, and cannot but enjoy perfect health. Its winter, notwithstanding the rains, is more agreeable than its summer, when fog and chilling winds prevail. This climate extends only the length of the bay; it improves as we recede farther south. On the contrary, in San Diego the climate is most delicious and equable; neither enervating by excessive heat, nor disagreeable on account of Northern blasts. Rains are scanty, yet vegetation is luxuriant wherever the soil is good. We may observe here in regard to the climate of California in general, that for the sake of health, summer dress should be entirely dispensed with; the nights throughout the coast are cold, and every new comer is more liable to suffer through neglect of this precaution than even the natives. Woolen dress is never oppressive here, but always beneficial. Strangers, if they suffer, owe their illness to the oversight of this fact, together with the excesses that some of them commit.