4 Life in the Open 



In the valley, one could hear the clang of bells of the 

 Mission of San Gabriel as they rang out, three miles 

 away, and beyond El Toro, over the divide Don Benito, 

 listen to the chimes of San Juan Capistrano as they 

 chanted to the sea. 



On such a morning I came down on to the mesa 

 from Las Cacitas, a spur of the Sierra Madre, where I 

 was living, rode through the deep carton, whose oaks and 

 bays were dripping with dazzling radiance, and as I came 

 out on to the mesa, from which I could see the islands 

 offshore, fifty miles distant, I heard the tremulous melody 

 of a horn. It came from the direction of Los Robles, 

 and as I rode on through the brush, my horse tossing 

 the odours of sage and other fragrant plants into the 

 air, out from the long lines of eucalyptus trees came the 

 hunt, the horses with their Spanish saddles and fascin- 

 ating montadiira, and in a blue and tan bunch the dogs, 

 greyhounds of high degree, that had left San Marino an 

 hour or more before. 



The country was open for miles near the Sierra 

 Madre, which rose abruptly from the mesa, the land 

 sandy below Las Cacitas, and covered with sage and 

 low chaparral ; here an eucalyptus grove, a young olive 

 orchard, and a vineyard, but in the main, open country, 

 so that one could see several miles in almost every 

 direction. This was the home of the jack rabbit or 

 hare, said to be the fastest runner and to possess better 

 staying powers than any animal known, a tree girdler, an 

 enemy of the rancher. Sure of his powers, he lived in 



