Home of the Mountain Lion I47 



filled with ferns and brakes, alone a magnet to attract 

 one again and again. The common brake is the most 

 conspicuous form, everywhere rearing its graceful 

 shape, and in damp places we find the bladder, shield, 

 and chain ferns, cliff brake, the coffee fern beneath 

 some scrub oak, and mimic plantations of maiden-hair, 

 the lace and cotton ferns ; and clinging close to the 

 ground the showy gold and silver back varieties. Here 

 will be a clump of the huge mountain tiger-lily, six, 

 eight, yes ten feet in height, a splendid panicle of 

 flowers, an orange patch against the background of 

 green. The bay is common at an altitude of two thou- 

 sand feet, a beautiful tree pouring forth an invigorating 

 aroma when touched. Down the sides of the canon 

 roll acorns two inches long, in enormous cups, started 

 by the gray mountain squirrel with foxlike tail, that 

 eyes you from the dwarf oak on the slopes, and as you 

 climb up the sides a flock of dark blue mountain 

 pigeons take flight or the long-plumed mountain quail 

 steals away. On every hand are evidences of the war 

 of ages. Great slides of rock pour down like rivers and 

 are, indeed, subtle slow-moving rivers of stone. Here 

 the half of a mountain spur has dropped into the 

 canon, leaving a red and jagged wound. Part of the 

 talus has been swept away by the winter's flood ; part is 

 covered by clustering ferns, while the young lilac and 

 tall purple larkspurs tried to cover it with a mantle of 

 colours. 



Climbing higher the chaparral grows thinner, and 



