144 Field Notes at San Emidio, [zoe 



resorted to in the summer, they would have protected them- 

 selves and they would have thrived. They would have been real 

 memorial trees, which might yet be telling of themselves and of 

 those who planted them, in the year 5893. 



FIEI.D NOTKS AT SAN EMIDIO. 



BY ALICE EASTWOOD. 



The ranch lies at the foot of the chain of hills which connects 

 the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Range. It is 

 watered by the San Kmidio Creek, which diffuses itself over the 

 surrounding country and, perhaps, in the spring, may be said to 

 empty into Buena Vista I^ake. It is further south than any 

 other inhabited house in the San Joaquin Valley, and the win- 

 ters are much milder than in adjacent parts of Kern County. 



The flora of the lower hills and plains is the same as that 

 ~ which characterizes the San Joaquin Valley. This season was 

 unusually late and unfavorable, for the cold rains retarded 

 vegetation. In the hills especially was the delay apparent. It 

 was the end of March ; but the twigs were only budding and 

 the snow covered the side of San Kmidio Mountain under the 

 timber almost to its base. 



Up on the low hills behind the ranch, the meadowlike sum- 

 mits were covered with flowers. The haze in the atmosphere 

 threw a shadow of unreality over the distant Sierras, where 

 the clouds hung low and the summits were white with the deep 

 snow. Buena Vista Lake seemed so near. Not a tree hid its 

 waters and only the shadows of low, barren hills rested on its 

 bosom. It, too, seemed unreal — a phantom lake or a mirage in 

 the enshrowding haze. The columns of dust that arose and 

 slowly followed each other over the alkali desert were fit inhabi- 

 tants of the weird scene. 



These treeless uplands recalled the Alpine parks of the 

 Rocky Mountains. Perhaps the green was not so deep, the 

 flowers less abundant, and the species fewer in the same area. 

 Certainly the coloring was not so rich and varied. The little 

 streams that trickle from the snow-banks and gather volume as 



