Excerpt from Bancroft's Pacific Coast Guide Book The main purpose of this book is to present, in a small space, such information as will be of most interest to travelers generally, visiting the Pacific Slope of North America. The notable views along the line of the Union and Central Pacific railroads, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific, are pointed out; the various climates of the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains, from Panama to the Arctic Ocean, are described; and the tourist is taken through the different districts and supplied with such explanation of the features of local nature and art as will enable him to enjoy them readily and to converse about them understandingly. The work is not designed exclusively for the pleasure tourist from abroad. Special attention has been paid to the needs of invalids, especially those of the consumptive class, and the chapters on the climates and mineral springs of our slope, (the former copied from the Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Coast, by the same author and issued by the same publishers), are the most comprehensive essays ever prepared on their respective subjects. The author did not consider it advisable in a compendium like this to give a summary of the opinions of medical authorities, on the therapeutical effects of different classes of natural medicinal waters, or of the influence of meteorological conditions on diseases of the respiratory organs. He does not hesitate, however, to claim that the best climate in the world for consumptives, and the best mineral springs in the United States, so far as a judgment can be formed from published statistics, are in California. Besides the wants of invalids and stranger tourists, those of a third class have been kept in view - the residents who wish to know the best places for picnics, camp grounds, summer idling, and country walks and drives. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.