1879.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



147 



aboloaies for dinner, and I do assure you it 

 was very fine. She was so well pleased with 

 them that she went to the old sailor's camp 

 and presented him with a can of fruit. ^Irs. 

 S. is a real lady— one of nature's nobility— 

 and enjoys camp life hugely. She is never 

 tired, and is always in a good humor and ready 

 for anything that may turn up in the way of 

 rational pleasure or fun. We spent our time 

 very ple;isantly on the coast, but the weather 

 is mucli colder than it is in the interior, or 

 even five miles back in the timber lands. This 

 is a great timber country. There are saw- 

 mills all along the coast and ou all the streams 

 ruiming into the ocean. There is a very large 

 business done here in the way of getting out 

 railroad ties and fence-posts. The timber is 

 red-wood. The weather being cold and windy, 

 and the fogs and dews heavy, Mr. S. took 

 sick, he being unwell when we left home, but 

 gaining all the way until we came here. We 

 had to leave the coast after being here just 

 one week. 



August 7. This morning we struck our tent, 

 broke camp, and went down the coast about 

 seven miles. At this poiat we left the coast 

 and started for the mountains. After travel- 

 ing eighteen miles we reached Navaro river, 

 where we pitched our tent at a tine soda 

 spring. There are quite a number of persons 

 here from San Francisco and Oakland. After 

 sojourning here four days, on Aug. 11 we 

 set out on our journey up the Navaro river to 

 White Hall, vs'here we struck Rauchero river, 

 and at 5 o'clock P. M., we camped near Rus- 

 sian river, in famous Sonoma county. 



August 12. This county has the reputation 

 of having the largest vineyard in California, 

 if not in all the world, having an area of over 

 seven hundred acres. "How is that for high V" 

 Nothing but grapes on grapes, "far beyond 

 the straining vision's gaze." We camped at 

 a place called Alder Glen, kept by Mr. R. J. 

 Shipley. 



August 13. Here there are a number of 

 soda springs, four of them being all in a line, 

 and can all be covered with a sixteen feet 

 board, and each spring had a different kind of 

 water flowing from it. They are visited by a 

 great many invalids. It is a beautiful place, 

 just fitted up this season with rustic seats and 

 line walks on the mountain, and other im- 

 provements. 



Attgust 16. Mr. Shepley is to-day bottling 

 soda water and shipping it to San Francisco, 

 and does a very large business in that line. 

 Although everything is very nice here, and 

 Mr. S. seems to be a nice sort of a man, yet 

 he is something of a "bilk." After making 

 a bargain with him for hay for our horses he 

 charged us just double the price we agreed 

 upon, when we were ready to start <away. 

 There is within three miles of this a lady 

 doctor, by the name of Preston, who claims 

 to have received her gift directly from God, 

 and professes to cure almost any kind of dis- 

 ease. She is not a medium, and disclaims 

 having anything to do with spiritism. There 

 are hundreds of patients here in waiting. 

 Every house in the neighborhood has as many 

 boarders as they can accommodate, and in 

 Cloverdale it is the same, besides a great 

 many that live in tents. I had a good oppor- 

 tunity of seeing and conversing with a num- 

 ber of those who had been treated by her, as 

 many of them came to the springs every day 

 for soda water while 1 was there. No person 

 drinks any other kind of water while here. 

 There is one gentleman here who had doc- 

 tored with all the best doctors in the State, 

 and had spent thousands of dollars in vain. 

 He had cancer of the stomach, and his phy- 

 sicians all told him that they could do nothing 

 for him, and he therefore must die. He heard 

 of Mrs. Preston and thought he would trii her, 

 anyhow. When he first came here he was 

 carried into the house. He is now well, and 

 the day before we loft the springs he went out 

 and shot a deer and carried it half a mile on 

 his shoulders. This is only one ca.se out of a 

 great number. Mr. Stewart was ou the sick 

 list when we left home and when we came 

 here he went to see her. She told him the 



nature of his disease — his aches and pains- 

 much better than he could tell himself, and at 

 no time was within six or seven feet of him. 

 She is truly a wonderful woman,;and all speak 

 in her praise. 



Auguxt 17. After remaining three days at 

 Alder Glen, we started for Clover Dale, 

 which is three miles from the Glen. Clover 

 Dale is (luite a nice town with railroad com- 

 munication with other towns. Here we 

 crossed Russian river and followed Sulphur 

 creek to the Geysers. These are among the 

 gi-eatest wonders of the world. These springs 

 throw up great volumes of water of every 

 temperature, from icy cold to hot enough to 

 scald a hog or boil an egg hard. There is a 

 jierfect fog or cloud of steam every morning 

 for over a hundred feet high, and a person can 

 smell sulphur for a mile around. Here we 

 pitched our tent and camped between two 

 streams, not four rods apart. One we used 

 for drinking and cooking, and the other was 

 hot enough for a hot-batli. 



August 18. This morning we started up the 

 mountain and at 1 p. m. we reached "Pine- 

 flat," where there are some old quicksilver 

 mines, but since they have ceased working 

 these mines, Pine-flat has "flattened out," 

 flat enough. It was at one time quite a town. 



We saw but two men and one woman in the 

 whole town. From here we passed through 

 Kellogs. This is a place of great resort and 

 recreation for many of the San Francisco 

 people. After traveling five miles further 

 we camped for the night. 



August 10. This morning at 10 a. m., we ar- 

 rived at Mark West Springs. This is the 

 handsomest fitted up place that wc have yet 

 seen. It is fitted up with bath houses, cot- 

 tages, swings and croquet grounds. The ho- 

 tel is large and the accommodations good and 

 ample, but the springs do not amount to much. 

 After leaving here we started for the Petrified 

 Forest, which is one of the greatest curiosi- 

 ties of California. There is about a mile 

 square covered with petrified Red-wood 

 trees. There is one— the largest we saw- 

 that is eleven feet across the stump, or butt, 

 and eight feet at the top. The petrified log is 

 sixty-eight feet long. This place was discov- 

 ered, and is now owned by an old Swiss sea 

 captain named Evans. He has three hundred 

 and forty acres and asks fifty thousand dol- 

 lars for it. Here we again meet our friends 

 from Ohio. Mr. Lapham took another pho- 

 tographic view of our camp and fixtures. We 

 parted with him while he was taking views 



of tjie petrified forest, and started for Calis- 

 toga, and arrived there at 12 m. Over one of 

 the springs there is a sign board which has in- 

 scribed upon it — '■'■Cook for yourscl/,^^ and on 

 a .shelf there are two dishes, one containing 

 pepper and the otiier salt. You put a little of 

 each in a cup, and fill it up with water out of 

 the spring, and you have as good chicken 

 broth as you desire to drink. After leaving 

 Calistoga we struck the valley runing to N-apa, 

 and were in Napa county. There are some 

 large vineyards in this valley, and also some 

 very large wine cellars. AVe passed through 

 St. Helena, which is a very lively town. Napa 

 valley is thirty miles longand about five miles 

 wide, and has some of the best and most ad- 

 veanced improvements of any place I have 

 yet been in. Napa is the county seat. When 

 we arrived in Napa city we pitched our tent 

 in Mr. Davis's large yard, he being an old 

 acquaintance, formerly residing in Elk Grove. 

 Nai)a has between five and six thousand in- 

 habitants, a College, a Seminary, a number 

 of Public Schools, and the State Insane As- 

 .sylum. 



August 215. We expected to hear Dennis 

 Kearney speak to-day, as his name had been 

 announced, but after the shooting of Kalloch 

 by De Young, at San Francisco, he was tele- 

 gi'aphed to come down, when he immediately 

 left. We, however, had the gratification of 

 hearing White, the candidate for Governor on 

 the H. B. ticket, ("Ilonoralile Bilks.") 



August 24. To-day (Monday) we drove out 

 seven miles, to a splendid place owned by 

 Mr. Iludemann. It is in the biisin of the 

 mountain, and he has a beautiful little lake 

 and four or five fountains, with every imagin- 

 able kind of flojvers. The place is fitted up 

 with rustic bridges, seats and tables. After 

 having tarried three days at Napa and here, 

 we started out for the great wheat fields of 

 Solano and Yolo counties, and passed through 

 Bridgeport, Suisun, Elmira and Dixon, and 

 stopped the last night from home, at the 

 ranche of Mr. Poorman. Mr. B. keeps 

 bachelor's hall, has an organ in the house, 

 which he plays tolerably well for an amateur, 

 in my judgment very well. 



August 28. ^Ir. P., this morning, refused 

 any compensation for the hay he furnished 

 our horses. We hitched up our horses this 

 morning for the last time, and started for 

 home. We arrived at Sac city at 2 P. M., 

 and at home at 8 P. M. We had now been 

 out forty-two days and had traveled between 

 four and five hundred miles, and taking it 

 altogether we had a splendid time. Had I 

 given the details I might have written a 

 book.— /.• Wittkli. 



Contributions. 



For TnK I.ancarter Fabmeb. 

 THE HEPATICA, OR LIVER LEAF. 

 This is an humble but interesting plant, 

 and one that usually puzzles the young 

 botanist. The botanical, like the common 

 name, has reference to the lobes, as well as 

 color, often, of the leaves, to the^lobes of the 

 liver. This is one of our earliest flowering 

 plants, very common from South Carolina to 

 Canada ; according to Bongard as far nortli 

 as Sitka ; blooming in February, March and 

 April. There are two forms noticed in the 

 leaves of the common Hepatica triloba, named 

 by Chaix. Linnaeus named it Anemone Ifepa- 

 tica, but it seems the name given it by Chaix 

 has the priority. One form has the lobes 

 roundish obtuse, the variety ohtusa; the other 

 has three to five lobes, which are spreading 

 and acute, the acuta. Loudon gives us six 

 European varieties of the Hepatica triloba : 

 the blue, cecrulea; the double blue, coeruko- 

 plena; red, rubra; double red, rubro-plena ; 

 red-anth white, alba; snowy-white, nivea. 

 These are in Europe great favorites of the 

 flower border, being evergreen in its foliage, 

 and for its abundant blossoms and great 

 variety of colors and shades. It is a question 

 whether our common wild plant would not, 

 under cultivation, become equally attractive, 



