318 Beyond (he Sierras. 



Here it is that the marvelous Washington Navel orange ripens iu full per- 

 fection. As I have already said, in speaking of the visit of the Riverside 

 committee to us at Indio, on our first entering the State, the Washington 

 Navels are well-nigh as large as cocoa-nuts. They are as large as cocoa-nuts 

 of the smaller size. They are almost without seed, either in the great glohe 

 of the fruit itself or in the protuberance at the blossom end, which has given 

 them their name. And the meat is most delicious, totally unlike the con- 

 tents of those cotton-batting and vinegar products which we see, and some- 

 times taste, from the eastern fruit-stands. 



I am not a connoisseur in the matter of oranges. I know that the Flor- 

 ida oranges are excellent for their fine flavor and sweetness. Among the very 

 best which I tasted on our journey to the West and through some thou- 

 sands of miles of travel along the Pacific coast were the Sonora oranges, which 

 were sold to me in Paso del Norte, at the entrance to that i)lace where the 

 Tor-r-ro comedy was enacted. I think that by far the best oranges which 

 I sampled in California were the Riverside Navels above mentioned. After 

 these I liked the flavor of the Mandarins, the Tangerins and the Maltese 

 Bloods. Indeed, almost all the improved varieties were fine. And I repeat 

 that those alleged oranges which we buy in our eastern markets are no 

 oranges at all in comparison with the real article, as it is found in the or- 

 chard where it grows. 



I will avail myself of this connection to say that, notwithstanding the 

 vast improvements which the Californians are making in their orange or- 

 chards, by grafting the native stocks with better fruits, there still remains a 

 large excess of seedlings. In many places I saw orange trees that were very 

 unprofitably engaged in delivering to the public such specimens of fruit as 

 ought to have sunk them into the earth ; but I also noticed that such trees 

 were generally in neglected situations, and older in growth than these of the 

 improved and cultivated orchards. I beseech you, Californians, to make 

 haste with this business, and eradicate all your dwarfed and gnarled seed- 

 lings from the face of the ground wherever they still remain. They cumber 

 it with a disgraceful mockery of fruit quite disparaging alike to your coun- 

 try and yourselves. 



There was a kind of heart-ache among the members of our Society as 

 our last session at Riverside drew to a close. All foresaw that after the even- 

 ing of the 9th our large company of people, recently, but most favorably, 

 acquainted with each other, must disperse, first into smaller conii)anies, then 

 into groups of two or three, and finally dwindle to one. Man, at the last, 

 makes all of his exits alone. A great excursion is like the fool's description 

 of Broadway, who, when asked what was the terminus of that mighty thor- 

 oughfare, replied that it split into two streets at the park, divided into 

 wagon roads in the country, and finally dwindled to a squirrel path and ran 

 up a tree. An excursion is all frazzled at the after end. It has what the 

 anatomists call a fimbriated extremity, and at the tip end of each filament 

 hangs some poor human heart, sorrowfully seeking its home. 



