



Produced by Bryan Ness, Josephine Paolucci and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)






[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA.]




OUR ITALY

BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

_Author of Their Pilgrimage, Studies in the South and West, A Little
Journey in the World... With Many Illustrations_


[Illustration]

_NEW YORK_
_HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE_


Copyright, 1891, by HARPER & BROTHERS.


_All rights reserved._




CONTENTS.


CHAP.                                                                 PAGE

I. HOW OUR ITALY IS MADE                                                 1

II. OUR CLIMATIC AND COMMERCIAL MEDITERRANEAN                           10

III. EARLY VICISSITUDES.--PRODUCTIONS.--SANITARY CLIMATE                24

IV. THE WINTER OF OUR CONTENT                                           42

V. HEALTH AND LONGEVITY                                                 52

VI. IS RESIDENCE HERE AGREEABLE?                                        65

VII. THE WINTER ON THE COAST                                            72

VIII. THE GENERAL OUTLOOK.--LAND AND PRICES                             90

IX. THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION                                        99

X. THE CHANCE FOR LABORERS AND SMALL FARMERS                           107

XI. SOME DETAILS OF THE WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT                          114

XII. HOW THE FRUIT PERILS WERE MET.--FURTHER DETAILS OF LOCALITIES     128

XIII. THE ADVANCE OF CULTIVATION SOUTHWARD                             140

XIV. A LAND OF AGREEABLE HOMES                                         146

XV. SOME WONDERS BY THE WAY.--YOSEMITE.--MARIPOSA TREES.--MONTEREY     148

XVI. FASCINATIONS OF THE DESERT.--THE LAGUNA PUEBLO                    163

XVII. THE HEART OF THE DESERT                                          177

XVIII. ON THE BRINK OF THE GRAND CANON.--THE UNIQUE MARVEL OF NATURE   189

APPENDIX                                                               201

INDEX                                                                  219




ILLUSTRATIONS.


SANTA BARBARA                                     _Frontispiece_

                                                            PAGE

MOJAVE DESERT                                                  3

MOJAVE INDIAN                                                  4

MOJAVE INDIAN                                                  5

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF RIVERSIDE                                   7

SCENE IN SAN BERNARDINO                                       11

SCENES IN MONTECITO AND LOS ANGELES                           13

FAN-PALM, LOS ANGELES                                         16

YUCCA-PALM, SANTA BARBARA                                     17

MAGNOLIA AVENUE, RIVERSIDE                                    21

AVENUE LOS ANGELES                                            27

IN THE GARDEN AT SANTA BARBARA MISSION                        31

SCENE AT PASADENA                                             35

LIVE-OAK NEAR LOS ANGELES                                     39

MIDWINTER, PASADENA                                           53

A TYPICAL GARDEN, NEAR SANTA ANA                              57

OLD ADOBE HOUSE, POMONA                                       61

FAN-PALM, FERNANDO ST. LOS ANGELES                            63

SCARLET PASSION-VINE                                          68

ROSE-BUSH, SANTA BARBARA                                      73

AT AVALON, SANTA CATALINA ISLAND                              77

HOTEL DEL CORONADO                                            83

OSTRICH YARD, CORONADO BEACH                                  86

YUCCA-PALM                                                    92

DATE-PALM                                                     93

RAISIN-CURING                                                101

IRRIGATION BY ARTESIAN-WELL SYSTEM                           104

IRRIGATION BY PIPE SYSTEM                                    105

GARDEN SCENE, SANTA ANA                                      110

A GRAPE-VINE, MONTECITO VALLEY, SANTA BARBARA                116

IRRIGATING AN ORCHARD                                        120

ORANGE CULTURE                                               121

IN A FIELD OF GOLDEN PUMPKINS                                126

PACKING CHERRIES, POMONA                                     131

OLIVE-TREES SIX YEARS OLD                                    136

SEXTON NURSERIES, NEAR SANTA BARBARA                         141

SWEETWATER DAM                                               144

THE YOSEMITE DOME                                            151

COAST OF MONTEREY                                            155

CYPRESS POINT                                                156

NEAR SEAL ROCK                                               157

LAGUNA--FROM THE SOUTH-EAST                                  159

CHURCH AT LAGUNA                                             164

TERRACED HOUSES, PUEBLO OF LAGUNA                            167

GRAND CANON ON THE COLORADO--VIEW FROM POINT SUBLIME         171

INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH AT LAGUNA                             174

GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO--VIEW OPPOSITE POINT SUBLIME     179

TOURISTS IN THE COLORADO CANON                               183

GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO--VIEW FROM THE HANSE TRAIL       191




OUR ITALY.




CHAPTER I.

HOW OUR ITALY IS MADE.


The traveller who descends into Italy by an Alpine pass never forgets
the surprise and delight of the transition. In an hour he is whirled
down the <DW72>s from the region of eternal snow to the verdure of spring
or the ripeness of summer. Suddenly--it may be at a turn in the
road--winter is left behind; the plains of Lombardy are in view; the
Lake of Como or Maggiore gleams below; there is a tree; there is an
orchard; there is a garden; there is a villa overrun with vines; the
singing of birds is heard; the air is gracious; the <DW72>s are terraced,
and covered with vineyards; great sheets of silver sheen in the
landscape mark the growth of the olive; the dark green orchards of
oranges and lemons are starred with gold; the lusty fig, always a
temptation as of old, leans invitingly over the stone wall; everywhere
are bloom and color under the blue sky; there are shrines by the
way-side, chapels on the hill; one hears the melodious bells, the call
of the vine-dressers, the laughter of girls.

The contrast is as great from the Indians of the Mojave Desert, two
types of which are here given, to the vine-dressers of the Santa Ana
Valley.

Italy is the land of the imagination, but the sensation on first
beholding it from the northern heights, aside from its associations of
romance and poetry, can be repeated in our own land by whoever will
cross the burning desert of Colorado, or the savage wastes of the Mojave
wilderness of stone and sage-brush, and come suddenly, as he must come
by train, into the bloom of Southern California. Let us study a little
the physical conditions.

The bay of San Diego is about three hundred miles east of San Francisco.
The coast line runs south-east, but at Point Conception it turns sharply
east, and then curves south-easterly about two hundred and fifty miles
to the Mexican coast boundary, the extreme south-west limits of the
United States, a few miles below San Diego. This coast, defined by these
two limits, has a southern exposure on the sunniest of oceans. Off this
coast, south of Point Conception, lies a chain of islands, curving in
position in conformity with the shore, at a distance of twenty to
seventy miles from the main-land. These islands are San Miguel, Santa
Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, San Nicolas, Santa Catalina,
San Clemente, and Los Coronados, which lie in Mexican waters. Between
this chain of islands and the main-land is Santa Barbara Channel,
flowing northward. The great ocean current from the north flows past
Point Conception like a mill-race, and makes a suction, or a sort of
eddy. It approaches nearer the coast in Lower California