14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



to travel along with us. We, of course, had no 

 objections, and the ex-vaquero became an at- 

 tachment to our outfit, or a sort of tail to our 



OUK VAQUERO OUTRIDER. 



kite. His horse was not a fiery steed, but he 

 was honest; his ears seemed to have been broken 

 down some time at the base, and had the habit 

 of flopping up and down like a saturated dish- 

 cloth. Our vaquero. too. held his bridle hand 

 high, and allowed the motion of his hand to 

 keep time with the horse's ears. On the whole, 

 our vaquero was a young man of many accom- 

 plishments; and around our campfire evenings 

 he gave us much information in relation to life 

 on the plains. 



Near Jolon (Jo-lone) we crossed the line into 

 Monterey Co., and now. after several days' 

 drive over a dry and dusty country, we enter 

 the mountains and cross over into the Salinas 

 River country. The change is agreeable ; and 

 Mr. Wilder, finding signs of deer, rode for sever- 

 al miles with rifle in hand, ready for execution 

 upon whatever animal might appear. 



\\aLDER SCENTS DEER ; A GAME CALF. 



At the foot of thegrade. justas we were about 

 to strike into a more level country, a deer arose 

 and looked at us from under the drooping foli- 

 age of an oak-tree. Wilder fired, of course, and 

 the deer gave a sort of scrooch, as though hit, 

 and then look an easy trot and disappeared in 



the bushes. This was the first wild deer I had 

 ever beheld. From Mr. Wilder's stories about 

 deer, I had my imagination all wrought up, ex- 

 pecting that, when I saw a deer, it would go 

 bounding away o'er the hills, with head, tail, 

 and horns erect — an imposing sight; but this 

 deer just stood and looked at us like an old 

 cow, or until it was shot at. then moved off. 

 Why, I have seen a two-months-old calf show 

 much more of a gamy spirit than that. Just 

 try to lead a stall-fed calf of the above age out 

 to the pasture-lot. with a long rope, and if you 

 don't find gamy qualities that will throw this 

 lone deer into the shade, then I am no judge of 

 animal nature. 



Hearing the firing, our vaquero. who was in 

 the rear, came dashing ahead, and rendered us 

 good service in scouring the brush ; in fact, all 

 three of us scoured, but in vain. No deer could 

 be found. Bro. Wilder said that a deer would 

 sometimes carry a bullet a longdistance, even if 

 shot in a vital spot. I told him I had a fair 

 view of the deer, and I was sure ice hit it in the 

 shoulder. When I said tve, Mr. WMlder turned 

 right off into the bushes again, and went to 

 scouring: and again we all scoured. We didn't 

 wish to lose that deer that we were sure we had 

 hit. But we had to pursue our journey again, 

 and Wilder and I didn't gel over onr bad shot 

 at that deer for three whole days. We got out 

 of the deer country, and could not mend mat- 

 ters by shooting another. 



We saw here, at the juncture of the hills with 

 the plains, a little apiary of half a dozen hives. 

 They were set up against a fence — box hives — in 

 squalid misery, and we thought it not worth 

 while to interview the owner. It demonstrat- 

 ed, however, that there was a little portion of 

 the country that could support bees. 



We now entered a strip of country, the repu- 

 tation of which we had heard of for many 

 miles. Even before we left our southland we 

 learned thai we should find the windiest place 

 we ever experienced wnen we entered the Sali- 

 nas Valley. The contour of the mountain- 

 ranges, and the valley's pointing toward the 

 Mojave Desert, cause the wind-currents from 

 the ocean to follow the strong tendency to fill a 

 vacuum on the desert, caused by so much heat- 

 ed air rapidly rising. The air-currents reach 

 their greatest force near King City, in the upper 

 portion of the Salinas Valley. We found the 

 windy stories verified ; and for eight miles we 

 faced wind, dust, and gravel stones — yes, sir! 

 small gravel stones were hurled through the 

 air, and were any thing but pleasant to strike 

 the eye. Our vaquero, riding doubled up on his 

 horse, was out of sight half of the time in the 

 clouds of whirling dust, and even our ponies we 

 beheld as through a mist much of the time. 

 Teams approaching us were almost upon us be- 

 fore being discernible; our eyes were full of 

 dust, and we shed tears of mud. It was a dry- 

 ing wind, loo, and several times we all drew up 



