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- 

 144 







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