The surrounding country is a sterile and gloomy wilderness exposed to the cold and blighting blasts of the Sierra.
Spring sets in with remarkable rapidity and charm at the end of April; but in the second half of May come the " icy saints' days," so blighting that it is impossible to cultivate the apple or pear.
His attention having been drawn to the blighting of the young shoots of fruit-trees, which was commonly attributed to the ants found upon them, he was the first to find the Aphides that really do the mischief; and, upon searching into the history of their generation, he observed the young within the bodies of their parents.