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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
290 HUTCHINGS’ CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE.
after night has closed in, when the candies are lighted and the fires are renewed,
to hear the well-known stamp of a welcome friend, who shakes off the snow
from his garments, as the door is opened,
and announces in pleasant tones, that
“this is something like winter.”
In the cities and towns around the
Bay of San Francisco, the voice of winter
speaks only in the rattling rain, as it
falls upon the roof and beats against the
window-pane, or in droppings from awn.
ings; or splashings from footsteps of
both man and beast—but seldom, very
seldom, in the gentle whisperings of the
gossamer snow. .
Such sights as these, that ancient an
venerable individual, so well known and
so often quoted as “the oldest inhabit
ant,” has never witnessed in San Francisco, nor in any of the towns and villages on the bays and coasts of California.
But, as we ascend the Sacramento or
San Joaquin rivers, the white tops of the
Sierras give us the assurance that Winter
—he of the hoary locks, bleak visage
and stormy garments—is known well
enough elsewhere.
On reaching the inland cities of Stockton, Sacramento and Marysville — the
three great starting points to the Southern, middle and Northern mining districts —although some three or four degrees cooler, during the winter months,
than the Bay City, snow is only oceasionally seen, and never remains upon the
ground longer than a few hours, at most,
and generally melts as it falls, During
the prevalence of a north or north-easterly
wind, a little ice is sometimes formed in
exposed places ; but the genial warmth
of the atmosphere never permits it to remain. The consequence is, that the
wide plains stretching to the foot-hills
are not only occasionally dotted with
white (Quercus Hindsii) and live-oaks,
(Quercus Agrifolia,) but are generally
carpeted with a beautiful green during
the three dreary months of winter, and
very early in spring are covered with an
endless variety of gay-colored flowers.
As we thread our way among the foothills, almost imperceptibly ascending,
the scene gradually changes. A few
inches of snow may be seen clothing the
summits of the apparently barren hills,
and the branches of the ‘ fruit-bearing ”
or “nut pine,” (Pinus Sabiniana,) the
manzanita, (A. glauca,) and the California Buckeye, Hsculus Californica,) —
now seen growing among the oaks—are
laden with a fleecy covering of snow. In
a few of the ravines and gulches, which
now begin tofurrow the landscape, miners
are busy at work; and on the sides of
the ravines, perhaps beneath the shade
of some huge trees, stand a number of
‘cabins, the temporary homes of the miners. Advancing, in our upward course,
the hills increase to mountains ; the comparatively shallow gulches change to
deep creeks and cafions; and the roads,
besides becoming more steep and difficult,
are constructed on the tops and sides of
nearly perpendicular mountains—especially when crossing the rivers from one
mining district to another—and on either
side of the dividing ridges, the snow has
increased to several inches in depth, coyering the mountain sides and filling the
ravines with the aqueous element, Now
the conical tops of the yellow pine (Pinus
Ponderosa) are seen among, and gracefully towering above, the other trees of
the forest. At this elevation we strike
the great mining region of the State, and
consequently in the valleys of the different streams and upon the very summits of the mountains, villages and towns
become more numerous. and signs of
mining industry are visible on every
hand,
Let us now go into yonder ravine, at
the foot of the mountain, We find
that, although it is snowing on the “ divide” we have crossed, it is raining al