230 Life in the Open 



Riding out on some of these points the cliffs for miles 

 can be seen. A fine road extends the entire length of 

 the island from Pebble Beach to Avalon, from Avalon 

 to the Isthmus at Cabrillo, and then on for five or 

 six miles, any part of which will repay the lover of 

 nature. 



The following day we took the trail up Cottonwood 

 Carton, visiting an ancient stone cave dwelling on the 

 divide, a great spur of Orizaba, where the ancient Santa 

 Catalinans lived centuries ago. At the entrance a huge 

 clump of cactus grew over piles of gleaming abalone 

 shells, which the natives had carried up the long hill from 

 the sea several miles distant. On the way up the canon 

 we found traces of ancient occupation, bowls or mortars 

 partly worked out in the solid steatite, or stone imple- 

 ments ; and at night rode into camp at Empire, where 

 verd-antique is being quarried. This ledge is an an- 

 cient olla manufactory, and the marks and scars of the 

 work are still to be seen. Here all the bowls or mortars 

 of soapstone found in the graves of the Southern Cali- 

 fornian Indians were made, shipped over the Santa Cata- 

 lina Channel in canoes, and exchanged for deer skins and 

 other products. 



The next morning we started for Avalon by the 

 north coast, following a narrow trail skirting Black 

 Jack, now along cliffs so precipitous that a misstep would 

 send the horse rolling down a thousand feet into the 

 deep cartons, always on the coast, until the head of the 

 trail was reached, where we followed the windings of 



