126 THE PLANT WORLD 



precipitous banks. First a large Erigeron, with light pinkish flowers ; 

 then the pretty Eriogonum vim.ineum, a white flowered form, quite as com- 

 mon as the darker one, which suggested the specific name. A rocky 

 talus supported an abundant growth of EschschoUzia minutifiora, and 

 afforded a few specimens of the curious Mohavea. Next appeared the 

 bright scarlet spikes of Pentstemon Eatoni, one of the handsomest mem- 

 bers of a handsome race. Here and there great rounded clumps of 

 Cereus Mohavensis cling to crevices in the rocky walls. It was past the 

 flowering season of them, but Fremoniia was still profuse with golden 

 blossoms. 



This is known as the Piiion belt, where the scraggy dwarf pine {P. 

 monophylla, which gives it its name) thrives without soil or moisture, if 

 only it can find a crevice by which to thrust its roots into the scorched 

 and barren rocks. Ephedra viridis was the most noticable of the under- 

 shrubs, a species easily recognized by its compact growth and slender 

 bright green stems. At the head of the caiion a stony slope is the type 

 station of Brichellia Mohavensis, which was in good flower. 



The road now began to climb the mountain side by a winding grade, 

 affording a wide outlook over the desert. All was bare and brown, save 

 for the tiny green dot of the distant Rabbit Springs. The prospect was 

 desolate, but the desert thus viewed has about it something mysterious 

 and indefinably alluring. 



As we approached the summit the stony slopes were brightened by 

 the flower-laden mosses of a pink phlox (P. anstromonfana). The summit 

 is over 7,000 feet above sea level, an ascent of 3,000 feet from our morn- 

 ing's camp. As soon as we had passed it we found ourselves in a little 

 mining camp. On the hillside a stamp-mill was noisilj^ busy, and near 

 it clustered the wooden houses of the " camp." A stream of yellow 

 " tailings " crept muddily down the valley. 



Events were e%ddently few in the camp, and the negotiations con- 

 nected with the purchase of a sack of barlej^ for the horses, eventually 

 involved all the business men and women of the place, and even aroiised 

 a languid interest in the row of apathetic miners, sunning themseves on 

 the porch of the principal emporium. 



Bear Valley, long and narrow, lay before us ; on either side a ridge 

 of rough, pine-clad mountains, reaching long, sloping arms into the cen- 

 tral meadows. The forests are not dense and gloomy, as in moister 

 climes, but open and park-like, and full of light. One can drive any- 

 where through them if the ground is not too rough. 



We intended to go down the mountain by a road which had recently 

 been made along the Santa Anna River, but we now learned that the side 

 of a mountain had slipped down and obliterated a mile of it. It was a 

 disappointment to give it up, for when a new road is made, I am never 



