92 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



catkins, and patches of the dwarf vaccinium with 

 its round flowers sprinkled in the grass like pur 

 ple hail; while in every direction the landscape 

 stretched sublimely away in fresh wildness a 

 manuscript written by the hand of Nature alone. 



At length, as I entered the pass, the huge rocks 

 began to close around in all their wild, mysterious 

 impressiveness, when suddenly, as I was gazing 

 eagerly about me, a drove of gray hairy beings 

 came in sight, lumbering toward me with a kind of 

 boneless, wallowing motion like bears. 



I never turn back, though often so inclined, and 

 in this particular instance, amid such surroundings, 

 everything seemed singularly unfavorable for the 

 calm acceptance of so grim a company. Suppress 

 ing my fears, I soon discovered that although as 

 hairy as bears and as crooked as summit pines, the 

 strange creatures were sufficiently erect to belong 

 to our own species. They proved to be nothing 

 more formidable than Mono Indians dressed in the 

 skins of sage-rabbits. Both the men and the women 

 begged persistently for whisky and tobacco, and 

 seemed so accustomed to denials that I found it im 

 possible to convince them that I had none to give. 

 Excepting the names of these two products of civ 

 ilization, they seemed to understand not a word of 

 English ; but I afterward learned that they were on 

 their way to Yosemite Valley to feast awhile on 

 trout and procure a load of acorns to carry back 

 through the pass to their huts on the shore of 

 Mono Lake. 



Occasionally a good countenance may be seen 

 among the Mono Indians, but these, the first speci- 



