304 Beyond the Siirni.s. 



CHAPTER VII. 



RIVERSIDE AND FINIS. 



The Upper San Joiujuin. — Appearanci- nj the. Muuiitdin Ranges. — Noted Peaks. — 

 Remarks on the Clinuitt i/ Otlifurnia. — TempenUure. — Atnwtpheric Ten- 

 sion.— Humidity. — Rttinfidl in V'uriuiis Regions. — Climatic Variatiuna >i» 

 Affkteil bji Man. — The Sea niul Muunlains in Relation to Climate— Dry- 

 ness of Ccdifurnia. — DistribiUvm af Animal Life. — The Goplier. — Thi' Mar- 

 (jiiis. — The Tehaehapi. — Big Locumnlives.— Death Valley ami Us Borax 

 Beds. — Cheerfid Names. — The Angels Again.— An Ideal Indian. — CoUun. — 

 At Riverside. — A Lint of R'rsonalities. — Riirrside Herself. — Tlie CUrns Fair. — 

 D'tails of the Exhibit.- Th- Recf'ptiuu. — Speeehf's.—L>ccd Excursion.— M"g- 

 ndia Avenue. — Highway and Border Trees. — Orange Orehanls Galort'. — 

 Species of TJiem. — Break-up of the Excursion. — Slight Heart-aches. — Habits 

 if the Man-Animal. — San Diego E.tcursion. — Tlie Country Thitherward.— 

 Arrival. — The Del Cownado. — Ocean Outside.- ElK-trictd Cars.— San Di>go 

 and Los Angeles. — The Two Harbors. — The Gre<d Hotel. — Ostrich Farm. — 

 Habits (f tlie Alleged Birds.— The Bicific as He Is.— Country About San 

 Diego. — Old Missions. — Good-by, E.ccursionists.—A Farewell Stroll. — Certain 

 Competitive Quadrupeils. — San Bernardino Trip. — Rccej^ion There. — Eheu, 

 Vale! ■ 



After another pleasant night in San Francisco, we are again away, on 

 the morning of the oih of February, across the harbor, through Uaklanil, to 

 our Tulbnans; and we head for distant Riverside, where the second session 

 of the Society is to be held. It is nearly five hundred miles to Los Angeles, 

 and ninety miles additional to Colton, which is the Riverside station on the 

 Southern Pacific. Again the darkness of night makes a long tunnel for us 

 through the upper portions of the San Joaquin valley. It happened to us 

 that in traversing this region three successive times we were in the dark» 

 and, therefore, had no opportunity of scanning the particular features of the 

 country of the great county of Merced. A compensating advantage existed, 

 however, in our passage of the Tehaehapi by daylight. Of coursf', some- 

 thing must be done with these twenty-four hours interposing between the 

 metropolis and our destination. The ladies of our company were always its 

 delight; but even with them conversation sometimes finds an end, and you 

 seek the limited solitude of your own Pullman window to muse in silence 

 on such topics as the landscape may suggest or past associations bring to 

 memory. 



Again I say that the philosophers of our section must excuse me from 

 the lobby while we take a brief survey of some subject appropriate to 

 our voyage — say the mountain pictures of California. These ranges lying 

 out yonder and bounding the San Joaquin valley <in the east, and on the 

 west as well, are typical of all the chains in the Gt)lden State. They have a 



