i88 Life in the Open 



glens and eyries which in their beauty compare favour- 

 ably with those of European resorts : the Gaviota Pass, 

 the Valley of the Santa Ynez, the mountains rising to 

 the east, while to the west the ocean is seen here and 

 there, a reminder of the extremes that Santa Barbara 

 affords. Here the lover of the picturesque may spend 

 weeks without exhausting its beauty. But we are off 

 again, rolling down to the beach, with its long line 

 of shining sands, calling to mind New England shores. 

 But here, they tell us, the water on this February day 

 has a temperature of sixty-one degrees, about that of 

 Newport in June. Tourists are enjoying the surf ; the 

 splendid palm-lined beach is gay with riders, while the 

 castellated rocks on the north are dotted with strollers 

 from the big mission-like hotel near by. Over beyond 

 the blue stretch of water that forms the Santa Barbara 

 Channel rise the Channel Islands. 



We could have reached the Ojai Valley, thirty-seven 

 miles south-east from Santa Barbara, through the 

 Cacitas Pass, but preferred to go by the Mission of San 

 Buenaventura, thirty miles away. This took us through 

 the delightful suburbs of El Montecito with its hot 

 sulphur springs far up the caflon, thirteen hundred feet 

 above the sea, where the Indians resorted years ago, by 

 nooks and corners of the Santa Ynez, the San Marcos 

 Pass, and the Painted Cave and Rocks. 



The stage road winds along the edge of the shore, 

 gleaming sandy crescents succeeding one another in 

 endless variety. Through the orange groves of El 



