28 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



terestiug point. The warm sun came out from the 

 snow-laden clouds, and everything looked so bright 

 and cheerful that we could hardly suppress our de- 

 light. We were in California at last, that land of 

 wonder and wealth; and the vision we saw before us 

 was a bright and cheerful one. The snow finally all 

 disappeared : green grass and flowers carpeted the 

 ground. The mountains gave place to hills, and the 

 hills to level, fertile plains. We arrived at Sacra- 

 mento in the afternoon. It was as warm and pleasant 

 as a summer day; and as I wandered about the streets, 

 eating some of the most delicious apples I ever tasted. 

 I could hardly believe that twenty-four hours before 

 it was dead winter, and ten feet of snow on the level. 

 Here the fast express left us, and toward evening we 

 again started behind a freight train. The number of 

 wild-fowl, which in some places covered the plains 

 and filled the air in long lines of swiftly moving birds, 

 was something astonishing ; and I have never since, in 

 all my experience, seen their numbers excelled. Great 

 swarms of white geese, grazing on the tender shoots of 

 the newly sprouted wheat, made the fields look as if 

 covered with snow. Flocks of gigantic pelicans, 

 slowly flapping their black-tipped wings, were on their 

 way to their fishing-grounds ; while mallard, teal, 

 shoveller, and many other kinds of ducks that I was 

 not familiar with, rose in countless thousands from 

 the shallow ponds beside the track; and plover, cur- 



