IN CALIFORNIA 23 



whole summit covered with spikes of glorious fra- 

 grant bloom. Threading such flowery thickets, the 

 cavalcade would be quite hidden in beauty and 

 fragrance, from which it would emerge into sun- 

 lit plains of verdure set with live-oaks, the ends of 

 whose branches in many cases rested on the ground, 

 so that the whole crown of the tree formed some- 

 what more than one-half a sphere. Under these 

 leafy tents, as well as in the sunny interspaces, wild 

 flowers blossomed. 



By mid-April Fremont reached the southern end 

 of this great valley which was destined to become 

 soon the granary of California, and climbing the 

 rough sides of the Sierra came in sight of the 

 desert. Here he beheld, at one glance, the two di- 

 verse pictures which California presents to-day, 

 and which contribute greatly to the fascination of 

 travel within its borders. Behind lay the verdant 

 valley of the San Joaquin, fed by living streams 

 whose sources were in glaciers and springs of the 

 Sierra Nevada ; and ahead stretched the sandy, vol- 

 canic wastes of the Mojave Desert the parched 

 llanos where as his Indian guides told him, "no 

 water is, no grass, nothing. Every animal that 

 goes there dies." It was Fremont's business, how- 

 ever, to make a way even if there was none, and 

 descending into the desert, he crossed to the north- 



