STEEP TRAILS 



and marry a Spanish woman. People mine for 

 irrigating water along the foothills as for gold. 

 He is now driving a prospecting tunnel into a 

 spur of the mountains back of his cabin. &quot;My 

 prospect is good,&quot; he said, &quot;and if I strike a 

 strong flow, I shall soon be worth five or ten 

 thousand dollars. That flat out there,&quot; he 

 continued, referring to a small, irregular patch 

 of gravelly detritus that had been sorted out 

 and deposited by Eaton Creek during some 

 flood season, &quot;is large enough for a nice orange 

 grove, and, after watering my own trees, I can 

 sell water down the valley; and then the hill 

 side back of the cabin will do for vines, and I 

 can keep bees, for the white sage and black 

 sage up the mountains is full of honey. You 

 see, I ve got a good thing.&quot; All this prospec 

 tive affluence in the sunken, boulder-choked 

 flood-bed of Eaton Creek! Most home-seekers 

 would as soon think of settling on the summit 

 of San Antonio. 



Half an hour s easy rambling up the canon 

 brought me to the foot of &quot;The Fall,&quot; famous 

 throughout the valley settlements as the finest 

 yet discovered in the range. It is a charming 

 little thing, with a voice sweet as a songbird s, 

 leaping some thirty-five or forty feet into a 

 round, mirror pool. The cliff back of it and on 

 both sides is completely covered with thick, 

 148 



