River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-10-29
From Southern California.

santa i SdDtI, Sdl.3 uly, 1919
Greetings from an isolated valley
among the mountains of southern
California to my pupils of River
Falls - always remembered with
tender affection.
Isolated-for so it may seem by
the time one has made the long
stage journey necessary to bring
him from San Diego to "Camp
Comfort from the sea level to an
altitude of nearly a mile; through
cultivated valleys, where, with irri-
CATION and increasing labor, the
orange and olive, the lemon and
grape, are made to grow luxuriant-
ly; across some burning, rocky
wastes whose ashy soil, unaided,
produces little besides the cactus and
the sage brush; up narrow, winding,
precipitous canyons; over mere
threads of rocky road clinging to
the mountain sides all clothed with
boulders, the yucca, grease wood
and chaparral; and, as the journey
brings him higher, into narrow
ravines with sparkling mountain
streams, or, may be "dry river"
where the presence of moisture is
marked by magnificent oaks and
rugged sycamores.
AT last, after a laborious climb of
long steep grade, the summit is
reached and just ahead spreads out
one of the finest of the many fine
valleys of southern California. This
one is perhaps four or five miles
long and three or four wide with a
living stream of some volume flow
ing through it the year round. Like
most of its neighbors this valley was
the center and home of the pictur-
esque life led by the possessor of a
Spanish or Mexican, land grant.
These grants consisted of fertile,
beautiful valley with all the ad
jacent mountain sides, ravines and
canyons, to a certain number of
acres whose boundary lines were SO
indefinite as to be little more than to
be guessed at. This rancho con-
tanned eighteen thousand acres and
was called Santa Ysabel. Through
the extravagances and designations
of its original owners, and the frauds
of others, the rancho long since
passed into American hands. 1t is
now owned by San Francisco parties
who lease it to others who have
stocked it we'll with good cattle and
carry on an extensive and profitable
dairy business. Compared with the
small fruit growers in the lower
valleys the life of the stock raiser
and dairyman in the mountains is
much the pleasanter, easier, and
profitable.
In this sixty-mile journey one has
assembled a mile; should the traveller
continue ten miles eastward he
would in that distance abruptly drop
a mile into the driest and hottest of
deserts. Ten miles east of Santa
Ysabel the summers are the hottest,
and sixty miles west, the coolest,
known in the United States. Be-
tween these is every combination of
climate that mountain and valley,
mingling of sea breeze with air
heated to temperature of 100 de-
gfees can produce. From sunrise
until ten or eleven a. m. the air on
the western slopes, heated by the
semi-tropical sun, rises, and the sea
breeze comes in to fill the vacuum.
The heated air in high stratum
mingles with the rising desert air,
flows west, reaches the ocean, cools
off, descends and flows back to the
mountains in cool, dry sea breeze
dry because most of it is really
desert air that has simply gone over
to the ocean for cool breath. 1t is
not sea-born wind. At shutdown
the air over the desert cools rapidly,
descends, changes the current, max
ing pure dry east wind among the
mountains and valleys of the west
ern slope. These currents of air are
very uncertain, coy, and hard to be
prognosticated. There is the hard
wind and the gentle breeze, hot air,
cool air and dry air. One little
valley, or part of a valley, may be
so protected that it does not get the
hot desert currents, while the next
little vale may SO lie as to get little
else. These currents of air with
the variations of altitude make a
great difference in climatic condi-
tons in places not far apart. There
is in San Diego county something
to suit almost every taste, no doubt,
but Just how to find it is the hard
question. The charm of the city of
San Diego and immediate vicinity
is that it has dry pure desert air
tempered by the ocean to a delight
+ full and equable temperature.
In the cool of the early evening
the stage coach leaves the modern
traveller at the door of low adobe
where he will be Hospitality well
coined TO real home although it is
called "the hotel" The big fire in
the fire place, should it be swim
ter"-that is rainy-evening, the
cheer and kindness of the acting
host and hostess, and especially the
kindly interest of the little five-year-
old hostess-Hazel- make one
comfortable, soon dispelall feelings
Of fatio,,a and one finds himself aat