182 Audubon's Western Journal 



already, some of them, yielded to the mountain 

 gusts and fallen. 



[No date.'] Tulare Valley. One more day 

 brought us to this great valley, and the view from 

 the last hill looking to northwest was quite grand, 

 stretching on one hand until lost in distance, and on 

 the other the snowy mountains on the east of the 

 Tulare valley. Here, for the first time, I saw the 

 Lewis woodpecker, and Steller's jay in this country. 

 I have seen many California vultures and a new 

 hawk, with a white tail and red shoulders. During 

 the dry season this great plain may be travelled on, 

 but now numerous ponds and lakes exist, and the 

 ground is in places, for miles, too boggy to ride 

 over, so we were forced to skirt the hills. This 

 compelled us sometimes to take three days when 

 two should have been ample. Our journeys now 

 are not more than twenty miles a day, and our 

 nights are so penetrating and cold, that four 

 blankets are not too many. 



[No date.] Our morning's ride, as we had 

 anticipated, was pleasant after the hills, but not 

 directly on our course, as the late rains had made 

 the soil, always soft, impassable for our mules, 

 from the mud. We wound round the mountains 

 for about twenty-five miles, to the first Indian 

 village we had seen, though we had passed several 

 single huts. Being far ahead of the train, I had 

 time to look at their household style of living, and 



