234 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



was more than startling. The snakes were cacti about 

 the diameter of a large python, and they depended 

 from the caves in a most suggestive manner, as if 

 some giant Medusa were resting in the cave, and her 

 living hair writhing in the canon. On the slopes of 

 San Clemente the ironwood {Lyonothamnus) trees 

 grow in strange and interesting shapes. You may 

 see them on the very top of the highest ridges in a 

 line, one following the other, and all together having 

 the appearance of a big lizard or some gigantic serpent 

 or grotesque monster coming out of its canon lair. 

 Sometimes there will be but one, looking like a big 

 mosquito or a cricket. The main island is more or 

 less bare in summer, but an emerald in winter; and 

 most of the canons are filled with trees and verdure 

 the year around; the "holly" berry {Heteromeles) is 

 particularly in evidence. If one is a close observer, 

 the tints of the verdure at various seasons is a delight, 

 — the yellows, reds, crimsons, and straw-tints of the 

 foxtail grass, the green and yellow lichens on the north 

 side of trees, or the grays on the rocks. 



In the springtime, after deep and soaking rains, 

 Santa Catalina is a garden. Brilliant green patches 

 of cactus, flowering shrubs, groves of wild cherry and 

 Cottonwood and slopes of wild oats, masses of lilies 

 and many other wild flowers, attract and lure the 

 walker or rider into deep cafions and fern-invested 

 nooks and corners where the abalone glistens, telling 

 that here the ancient islanders found flowers and 

 shrubs ages ago. Where the sun has continued access 

 the slopes are often bare except for cactus, but in 

 among this you will find the poppy, the long- 

 stemmed lavender Brodicea or the wild onion, and 



