1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



27 



dm P0PE& 



NOTES OF TRAVEL. 



Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 

 him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall 

 give him shall be in him a well of water springing 

 up into everlasting life.— John 4: 14. 



fHE Ojai hot-springs (pronounced Ohi) 

 are 15 miles from Ventura, in the Ma- 

 tilija canyon ; the mountain scenery 

 is some of the grandest I have seen. 

 Right opposite the hotel the mountain 

 rises 1000 feet, almost perpendicular. Sev- 

 eral objects of interest are found in the 

 canyon, besides the springs. One of them, 



THE DEVIL'S SLIDE, NEAR OJAI DOT SPRINGS, CAL 



called the Devil's Slide, we have reproduced 

 from a photograph. It looks as if the boys, 

 by riding down with their sleds, cut a path, 

 or track, clear from the top of the moun- 

 tain down the whole 1000 feet, to the river 

 below. This appearance is caused by a 

 stratum of rocks of regular and even thick- 

 ness being turned up edgewise, with rock 

 projecting a little higher on either side. 



The picture was taken when the trees 

 were in full leaf ; but now the slide is visi- 

 ble clear down to the water. 



To Huber.— Papa is in a strange country 

 now. The sun has just gone down, and 

 it is only 2 o'clock, just 2 hours after dinner 

 time. The man who lives here says in a 

 few days it won't get up above the awful 

 big mountain at all for more than six weeks. 

 Behind us is a fountain where the water 

 spurts right straight up, higher than the 

 house ; and right down before us, around 

 the great big clean white stones, is a spring 

 where water just pours out that is smoking 

 hot. Off up the creek a little way is another 

 where the water is so hot vou can hardly 

 bear your hand in it. The men have 

 made a long wooden box to carry the 

 water to a little house where there 

 are a lot of bath-tubs. I just took a 

 bath, and it was real fun, I tell you, 

 to have a big lot of real warm water 

 pour right on to you. It is a funny 

 kind of water, that doesn't need any 

 soap— no, not even for papa's head, 

 and I think even mamma herself 

 would say my head is very clean now. 

 I don't think I ever looked quite so 

 white before in my life. Up in this 

 canyon is a great place to keep bees, 

 and the honey the bees get is the 

 nicest in the world. 1 saw the man 

 who first found out it was a good 

 place for honey. One year he got 

 more than a hundred wagon-loads of 

 honey from his own apiary. The 

 road he made to draw the bees up 

 and get the honey out, you would 

 think an awful road. It just shakes 

 a body's breath out to ride over it. 

 Sometimes he would stay up there in 

 the mountain gorge, all alone, for 

 two weeks, and not see anybody at 

 all. One of the bee-men hired a boy 

 to work for him. His name was El- 

 mer. Well, he used to leave Elmer 

 all alone there to work, and he didn't 

 see anybody at all for days. One day 

 when they came up, Elmer asked 

 them if they couldn't bring him a cat 

 or a dog, or something that had " the 

 breath of life in it," to keep him com- 

 pany. They said one time he took 

 the ax and chopped a great pile of 

 wood, because he wanted something 

 to do, and because he used to chop 

 wood away back in his home, yet no- 

 body wanted wood around here. 

 Well, out here they have a great deal 

 of trouble with bears. They come to 

 the bee-hives and turn them over, 

 and take their great paws and scoop 

 out the bees and honey to eat. One 

 time a bear spoiled so many hives 

 that Mr. Shaw, the man who first 

 went up here, stayed all night up in a tree, 

 with his gun, to shoot him. He made a lit- 

 tle house or cage up in the tree, so it the 

 bear climbed up he could not get at him, 

 and then they waited. About 11 o'clock, 

 along came a great big grizzly bear, and com- 

 menced to paw the hives to pieces. The 

 two men in the tree shot him until he was. 

 dead. 



