THE PACiriC SLOPE. 255 



Liad utterly disregarded them. In course of time, Mr. 

 O'B. appeared in his shirt sleeves, carrying his coat, 

 blanket, and saddle, and most thoroughly disgusted 

 with his horse, which had driven him to the verge of 

 distraction by its vagaries, and the misfortunes into 

 which it led him. He told us he had come to the 

 conclusion that he should be much happier on foot, 

 and wished to lend him to us to use as a pack animal 

 for the rest of the journey. 



The descent on the western slope was very rapid and 

 continual, although nowhere steep, and a change in 

 the vegetation marked the Pacific side. The cedar, 

 the silver pine, and several other varieties now first 

 appeared, and became more and more frequent. A 

 species of aralea, a tall prickly trailer, many kinds of 

 rosace^e, and new deciduous shrubs, showed strangely 

 to our eyes. The timber was altogether of a larger 

 growth, and the huge trunks which barred the path 

 rendered our progress very laborious. The pack 

 horses wearied us by breaking away into the forest, 

 rather than leap over the obstructions in the way, 

 and from morning till night we were incessantly run- 

 ning after them to drive them back. Then they 

 rushed about in every direction but the right one, 

 crashing and tumbling amongst ^the timber, and often 

 invohdng themselves in most serious embarrassment, 

 jamming their packs between adjacent trees, trying 

 to pass under an inclining trunk too low to admit 

 the saddle, or jumping into collections of timber 

 where their legs became helplessly entangled. On 

 the afternoon of the 13th we came to a place 

 where the trail passed along the face of a lofty chff 



