San Diego to San Francisco 185 



eyes perfectly; these elk must be greatly harassed 

 by the wolves, which are very numerous, and so 

 bold at night that we have had several pieces of 

 meat, and a fine goose stolen from over my tent 

 door. Their long, lonely howl at night, the cries 

 of myriads of wild geese, as well as Hutchinson's 

 goose (which is very abundant) and the discordant 

 note of the night heron, tell the melancholy truth 

 all too plainly, of the long, long distance from 

 home and friends. 



There is no trail but that of wild horses and elk, 

 all terminating at some water-hole, not a sign of 

 civilization, not the track of a white man to be 

 seen, and sometimes the loneliness and solitude 

 seem unending. 



The water is beautifully clear now, and is full 

 of fine-looking fish; the large salmon of these 

 rivers is a very sharky-looking fellow and may be 

 fine eating, but as yet we have not been fortunate 

 enough to get one, though several have been shot 

 by Hudson and Simson as they lay in the shallows. 

 The average width of the river here (that is, two 

 days' journey from the mountains) is about eight 

 yards, but as the snow^s are high up on the moun- 

 tains, no doubt a great portion of the water is 

 absorbed by the sandy soil it runs through. 



Among the oaks the long acorns of two shapes, 

 a good deal like nuts in taste, but still astringent to 

 a disagreeable degree, are plentiful, and we eat a 



