Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-07-10
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

E..
EDITORS CHRONICLE According
to the promise made at the close of my
last letter, / will try to give you aud
your readers faint. idea of the city
and country in which / am. for the
present. stopping. found Southern
California, or as it is now called. Semi
Tropical California. surprisingly love-
ly-fairer than the most gorgeous pie
turiRgs of lotus eaters Imagination.
| have often paused, smiling incredu-
lousy, while reading the fabulous de-
scriptions of scenes and countries con-
tanned in The Arabian Nights En-
tertainment," and wondered whether
such sketches did, or could. have a
counterpart in Nature, aud | have been
rather sceptical, too, in regard to the
glaring, dazzling en-pietures of Italy
and other fair climes saying in my
ignorance that such scenes must and
could exist only in the fertile imagin-
atoms OF their brilliant authors, but
now-now since have seen Southern
California, am prepared to admit
them all. Nature has here blended
the sublime and beautiful, the grand
aud gorgeous into such rare and lovely
combinations that the scene never
fails to awe while it enchanis. ada
Los Angeles county or valley EN-.
braces an ares of 1900 square miles,
being begirt on three sides by mount
aims, and on the fourth by the waters
of the blue Pacific. The valley stretch
es away to the mountains on one side.
and on the other to the ocean in I'M
broken loneliness, presenting pano-
rama that rivals in picturesque variety
and calm beauty, any vision that ever
inspired tho pen of \ poet, the brush
of an artist, or ravished the beholder's
eye. Here broad. green vineyards,
orange, lime and lemon groves. orch
ards filled with English walnuts, figs,
almonds, olives, pomegranates, bsnan-
as. filberts, apricots. nectarines, and in
fact, almost every fruit known, dot the
landscape far and near. lntermingled
with these sre myriads Of flowers, the
richest and the rarest that bloom in
natures vast partcrre, freighting the
very atmosphere with their incompar-
able odors and aromttic sweets. The
whole valley has the appearance of s
collection of orchards and gardens
covering many miles Of territory, in
which fruits of every variety known to
the temperate zone grow and ripeH
throughout the year. while the delici-
Gus perfume from the incense cups of
myrisds of flowers fills the air from
January until December. During the
whole year fruit, the most luscious aud
delicious. can be pulled from the trees
and two crops be grown on the same
piece of land. Away off in the distance,
the cload-erowned submits of the
Sierra Madre mountains. on whose
brow the crown of winter yet remains,
tower sloft. and stand calm and i'm
movable, awful in their majestic grand
eur, sublime in their cold, immut,ble
repose. They seem like giant sentinels
placed there to guard the lovely vale I
that lies within.
Situated amid such rare scenery,
Los Angeles City could not we'll fail
to partake of the surrounding love- !
illness, even tho she did not add to Il.
The city is six miles square, the cor
porate limits extending three miles in
all directions from the court house
built upon level plain gently sloping
to the South. II embraces diversity
OF scenery whose besuty never fails to
I . mate. About fifteen miles to the
west Of the city is the ocean, and TWEEN.
ty miles to the east, a long range Of
mountains stretching away to the south.