586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



Notes of Travel 



FROM A. I. ROOT. 



IN THE SAN .JACINTO YAI.LEY. 



The day before leaving:, our good friend Morse 

 hitclied up and took Mrs. Root and myself, 

 together with his good wife, and we went off 

 to a wild mountain spot, where , his apiary is 

 located. Through this valley there aie occa- 

 sional isolated mountains that rise from lOO to 

 1000 feet or mor.- in height, and a great many 

 times it is a level plain all around them. Some- 

 times one of these mountains rises up in the 

 middle of a farm. The rainy season had com- 

 menced, and we saw the rain falling on the 

 different mountain-peaks all around us: but 

 down in the valley we had sunshine most of 

 the time. There ai'e some strange things about 

 these little mountains. Not very long ago. a 

 cloudburst occurred near friend Morse's apiary. 

 It poured down a hollow on one side of the 

 mountain, like a deluge indee I, Every thing 

 in the way of improvements was swept away; 

 and when the water reached the valley below, 

 it came over the plain in the shape of a huge 

 wave two or three high, taking fences and all 

 before it until it had spread out so as to do but 

 little harm. Well, up in this notch of the 

 mountains some would-be explorer — a man of 

 considerable means — had tunneled into the side 

 of the mountain, at an expense of several thou- 

 sand dollars, in the vain hope of finding water, 

 so as to make this notch that contained two or 

 three hundred acres a spot of value. After he 

 had given it all up, there came this cloudburst. 

 Well, what do you suppose this cloudburst re- 

 vealed ■? Why, within less than half a mile 

 from where he wasted his money, a torrent of 

 water, in washing away a bank of earth, dis- 

 closed a spring; and as we came near the spot 

 my ears were greeted with the sound of a 

 waterfall. I left the rest, and ran down behind 

 some bushes, and there indeed was quite a little 

 volume of water pouring over a rocky ledge two 

 or three feet high. This spring runs winter and 

 summer, I was told: but the strange part of it 

 is, that, a few rods below the waterfall, the 

 stream gradually disappears in the porous 

 gravel formed of powdered granite. Now, this 

 lets us into a secret. There are springs of much 

 volume round about the bases of many of these 

 mountains; but nobody suspects it, for the 

 water sinks down into the porous soil before it 

 ever reaches daylight. 



On account of the rain we pushed on to River- 

 side in the hope of meeting our good friend 

 Rambler in his present home. We found his 

 abiding-place; but the good woman who had 

 charge of the rooms informed us that he was 

 out at his apiary, somewhere off in the moun- 

 tains; and as he usually went away on foot, 

 she could not tell us when he would be at home; 

 neither could I start after him on foot very 

 well, for there were several routes which he 

 might have taken in going and coming. Re- 

 sides, I might get lost; and, moreover, it rained 

 — that is, it rained now and then, and then the 

 sun shone now and then. Between the showers 

 Mrs. Root and I managed to take in a view of 

 the town of Riverside pretty thoroughly. On 

 another page friend Rambler has given us a 

 glimpse of the Riverside postoltice. I do not 

 think he used his Kodak, however, for the 

 building is rather more imposing than the one 

 shown in the cut. and the buildings adjoining 

 were also much more citified. Riverside has 

 grown so rapidly during the past three years, 

 that, had I been set down in the place without 

 knowing where I was, I should not have recog- 



nized a single landmark. So much for a town 

 that does not have any saloons or whisky- 

 shops. Riverside and vicinity is truly, so far 

 as I know, the garden of the world. As we 

 came in on the train we saw oranges heaped 

 up in the orange-orchards until it seemed as if 

 all the world could never use so many: and 

 when we went into towns in the adjoining sub- 

 urbs, it seemed just so everywhere. At River- 

 side the orange-trees are not only close to the 

 sidewalk, but there are trees outside of the side- 

 walk, expres'^ly for the comfort and refreshment 

 of the thirsty traveler; and the most beautiful 

 oranges were right overhead and all around 

 your head. Sometimes you had to dodge to 

 keep your head from bumping against them. 



When the rain abated a little I took Mrs. 

 Root along to one of my repeated visits to see if 

 Rambler had got around. You see he blames 

 me a little because I did not hunt him up: and 

 he says. too. I might have sent him word that 

 I was coming. What a preposterous idea, when 

 it rained every day. or two or three times a day, 

 so that nobody could tell what he was going to 

 do! Well, even if we did not find Rambler 

 himself we found some beautiful fancy poultry; 

 and among the collection were some wild quail. 

 Now. you nuiy talk all you like about fancy 

 poultry, pigeons, guinea hens, peacocks, and 

 every thing else in the whole line; but to my 

 mind there is nothing in this whole wide world 

 so pretty and graceful and so cute as the Cali- 

 fornia quails. Why. I do not understand how 

 it is that Rambler has lived there right close 

 beside them all this time, and has not said a 

 word abouL; them. I did not have my Kodak 

 along, so I can not give you a view; besides, if 

 I did have it I am afraid the birds would not 

 have stood still long enough for even the Ko- 

 dak. At the different restaurants I had fre- 

 quently dined on quail on toast; but when I 

 came to see the dainty little birds alive and on 

 foot, I felt — well, rather ashamed of myself. 



Well, as Rambler would not come nome, and 

 we did not know how to send word to him, we 

 resolved to see what we coidd do; so we took an 

 excursion. It was on what they call the "' kite 

 track." You go off' on one line of railroad and 

 come back on another, going around a loop. We 

 had time to take in only half of the small loop, 

 for you see the excursion route is something in 

 the shape of a figure S. W^hile we were at Riv- 

 erside it was clear sky and sunshine ; but away 

 off on the San Bernardino range of mountains, 

 especially toward the Arrowhead Springs, we 

 could see it was raining furiously. We con- 

 cluded, however, it would stop before we got 

 there; but it didn't, and we went through the 

 beautiful towns clear out to Mentone and Red- 

 lands, and lots of other places, through the 

 continuous rain: and when we got back it was 

 clear sky and sunshine again. The rain did 

 not. however, entirely cut off the wondrous 

 beauty of these new towns round about Red- 

 lands. We thought we had seen orange and 

 lemon groves and orchards before; but on this 

 little trij) it was a perfect maze of fruit-farms. 

 In fact, almost every foot of land seemed to be 

 laid out and planted with fruit of some kind. I 

 sincerely hope all of the fond dreams will be re- 

 alized that seem to have given such a wonder- 

 ful boom to Redlands and vicinity. 



When we fetched around to Colton, on the 

 Southern Pacific, we decided to leave the land 

 of flowers and sunshine (and rain too, some- 

 times), and start for home. As we had a cou- 

 ple of hours at Colton. even though it was after 

 dark I went on a little exploring expedition 

 around the town. Mrs. Root thought she had 

 explored enough for one day. especially as it be- 

 gan to rain. As I pushed off' into one of the by- 

 streets a little, my ear caught the notes of a 



