238 Audubon's Western Journal 



the heat is most oppressive, though, as in England, 

 if you stand still for only a few moments in the 

 shade, you soon feel chilled through. 



The valley here is not as wide as at Stockton by 

 at least twenty miles, and the grand masses of snow 

 covered mountains seem almost within a day of 

 you, whilst south you still have distance to give 

 additional enchantment to the view. The oaks 

 here are small, not more than from eighteen inches 

 to two feet in diameter; if the soil in which they 

 grew had any richness, I should say the whole 

 forest was of forty years growth at most, but for the 

 occasional presence of a grove of magnificent pines, 

 from a hundred to nearly two hundred feet high. 

 I have measured many at the angle on the ground 

 and have proved it with rods so that I know I am 

 very nearly correct in my statement. 



May 6th. Crossing the river at Coloma, on a 

 good bridge, we commenced our ascent of the long 

 and in many places very steep hill. We found a 

 start at dawn would have been much better than 

 at ten, which it now was, as our poor mule "Riley" 

 felt the heat greatly; but with occasional pauses up 

 we went, passing wrecked wagons and broken 

 pack-saddles in several of the narrow parts of the 

 canons that the road wound through. We were 

 not sorry when we found we had reached 

 the last hill and mounted it, hoping to be repaid 

 by some distant view, but on no side could we see 



