THE MESA TRAIL 



across at intervals by the deep washes of 

 dwindling streams, and its treeless spaces 

 uncramp the soul. 



Mesa trails were meant to be traveled 

 on horseback, at the jigging coyote trot 

 that only western-bred horses learn suc- 

 cessfully. A foot-pace carries one too 

 slowly past the units in a decorative 

 scheme that is on a scale with the country 

 round for bigness. It takes days' jour- 

 neys to give a note of variety to the 

 country of the social shrubs. These chiefly 

 clothe the benches and eastern foot-slopes 

 of the Sierras, great spreads of artemisia, 

 coleogyne, and spinosa, suffering no other 

 woody stemmed thing in their purlieus ; 

 this by election apparently, with no el- 

 bowing ; and the several shrubs have each 

 their clientele of flowering herbs. It would 

 be worth knowing how much the devastat- 

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