108 Plants of Santa Catalina Island. + L208 
are found along the coast of southern California. The mountains 
reach a height of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet; their sides ate 
broken by numerous cafions and gulches; and the summits are 
often somewhat level ‘or rolling. -A trail follows the crest, winding 
along sometimes near the center, but usually nearer the mainland 
side. The cafions sometimes widen into small level ‘‘parks,’’ but 
ordinarily they are narrow and the slopes are very steep. Water 
can be found in most of the larger ones, especially during the early 
part of the year, though it seldom finds its way to the ocean along 
the surface. There are some small lakes situated high up in the 
mountains; the largest one, known as ‘‘Echo Lake,” having an area 
of about two acres, and, occupying what seems to be the crater of 
an extinct volcano, is filled by the winter rains, and does not often 
become dry in summer. 
The island has for many years been inhabited by sheep and goats, 
about 12,000 of the former and more than half a3 many of the latter 
occupying it atthe present time. During the many years these flocks 
have roamed over its hills many plants must have disappeared from 
the island flora, especially in seasons of great drought, and doubt- 
less some of those now most common owe their presence to im- 
portation by the sheep. At Avalon, a summer resort, which has 
many permanent residents and is the landing place of the ferry from 
San Pedro, many of the common needs of the mainland have been 
recently introduced, and probably more will soon follow. 
Few trees but many large bushes are found upon the island; only 
the poplar, willow, and perhaps an oak reach a size that warrants 
them in being called trees, and they are hidden in the narrow cafions. 
Bushes, however, grow almost everywhere, but most luxuriantly 
upon the northern exposures of the steep slopes, where they often 
seem to be too large for bushes, though too small for trees. There 
is a tradition that at one time pines grew upon the island but were 
destroyed by fire. One of the old inhabitants, however, a man who 
has lived there for thirty-four years, says there was no trace of them 
at the time of his arrival. : 
The flora, as a whole, very much resembles that of Santa Cruz 
Island, and at first sight appears to differ from it only in the abun. 
dance of Crossosoma and Rhus laurina. The species, as will be no- 
ticed, are to a great extent those of the adjacent mainland. The 
peculiar species of this as well as of the other islands are largely 
