dented fall of rain, from which damages more or less extensive were reported throughout the length of the territory. At Sonoma many of the new adobe buildings were destroyed. The voyager Kotzebue notes the violence of the storms at San Francisco. At Santa Cruz the river overflowed the gardens and undermined the buildings. Considerable grain was spoiled in the fields at different missions. The southern rivers were so swollen as to prevent the diputados from coming to Monterey to ratify the federal constitution, and considerable changes in the course of the southern streams and general drainage of the country are reported, notably at Los Angeles and San Diego. More particulars will be found in local anuals.[1] The rains were on the whole beneficial to the crops in spite of the local losses, for the harvest was 68,500 fanegas, the largest of the decade except that of 1821.
- ↑ General mention not likely to occur in local anuals. Leg. Rec., MS., i. 42; Dept Rec., MS., i. 300-1. A newspaper item, accredited to Salvio Pacheco and widely copied, states that from 1824 to 1826 hardly any rain fell. Mention of the floods in Alta Cal., Dec. 30, 1852; Yuba Co. Hist., 67.
