232 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



and climb the height of Orizaba, or the hills at Avalon, 

 and from a sea of incarnadine look out on the ocean of 

 sapphire. Far away is the mainland, the high Sierra 

 Madre, the hanging mountains, for the great snow- 

 capped peaks seem crystals from which banners and 

 snow flurries drift off over the valleys of eternal sum- 

 mer like genii of the ice battling with and absorbed by 

 the genii of heat. At such times the angler may wish 

 he were a botanist, that he might take in all the 

 beauties of the plant life of these islands. Some of 

 them have plants peculiar to themselves; and though 

 at first glance they appear barren, treeless, bushless, a 

 maximum rain is like a magic wand converting the 

 dreary and rocky slopes into verdant glades. Even 

 on forsaken San Nicolas, radiant flowers grow, fighting 

 the fierce wind that threatens to wipe them from the 

 very earth. 



The angler who does nothing but fish at the islands, 

 and who supposes that this is the sole attraction, loses 

 the essence of the charm of these isles of summer. 

 To enter really into the full enjoyment of the region, 

 one should leave the haunts of men and wander off 

 into the deep canons with some sympathetic compan- 

 ion; go on a trip of discovery; hunt out the little bays 

 at the mouths of the canons, the nooks and corners of 

 verdure, the groves of stunted oak and of cottonwood, 

 the dense thickets of adenostoma, the diminutive 

 forests of cactus, and the wild rocky slopes of the 

 mountains.* 



* Strangers not accustomed to mountains and canons should not attempt 

 this without a guide; every year men and women are lost here, and it is 

 a sore grievance for the boatmen of Avalon to haul them out of caiions and 

 up from precipices. Mountain-cHmbing is for mountain-climbers; those 

 not familiar with it should take guides. 



