130 Audubon's Western Journal 



dry ourselves by the fires of those who had 

 come in ahead. We have now become so accus- 

 tomed to daily rains that it is a matter of course 

 to encounter them. There is a rancho here with 

 peaches and figs in abundance. In this valley we 

 went again to shoeing horses; never were shoes 

 lost in so short a time as on these cruel trails, some- 

 times they are wrenched ofif in a few hours, and 

 they commonly get loose and require nails every 

 three or four days. Layton and I ascended one 

 of the highest peaks in the neighborhood; like all 

 other mountain regions when one peak, seemingly 

 the highest, is reached, others still higher appear 

 between us and the desired view. Out of breath, 

 shoes cut, and clothes torn, we reached the foot of 

 the highest elevation like the cone of Vesuvius, 

 and found it an arduous climb; broken, reddish 

 traprock of all sizes made the mass, and a strag- 

 gling pine from time to time added to the solemnity 

 of this desolate place, which filled me with awe 

 and reverence, which was not decreased as mut- 

 tering thunder gave us warning that our turn 

 would be next, if the attractions of the mountains 

 the storm was already besieging, did not exhaust 

 the clouds. Silently, however, we struggled up- 

 wards, and another half hour enabled us to look 

 to the east, south, and west as far as eye could 

 reach; the north was left to our imaginations, 

 being hid by a veil of clouds which sent flash after 



