188 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



gone through it. This so hemmed in my vision that I could 

 only see in advance. I slowly and wearily tramped over the 

 flinty road, w^ith limbs so chafed and feet so blistered that I 

 had often to stop to rest. Besides, the sun shone warm, in 

 spite of December and the snow-covered mountains. I at last 

 emerged from the chaparral to an open plain. 



The day was waning and night came on long before I got 

 to the stream where I was to pass the night. Mindless of the 

 saline fate of Lot's wife, I turned to look back and saw the most 

 beautiful sight imaginable — sunset on Mount San Bernardino. 

 It seemed as if the sun, with his shadowy lever and the horizon 

 for a fulcrum, was slowly forcing the light of day heavenward; 

 the last rays gathering around the summit of that peak of the 

 Sierras. The gleaming white changed into the most beautiful 

 purple and gold, and the mountain top remained thus invested 

 for some time after twilight had mantled the plain below. The 

 mellow tints grew darker as the sun, in his Archimedean role, 

 bore down his end of the lever, lower and lower, till, with an 

 imaginable hiss, he plunged into the sea; while the other 

 extremity of the phantasmal seesaw climbed the summit and 

 drove to the cold upper air the last lingering rays of light. 

 I stopped longer than I could afford to look on this sight. 

 The thickening gloom warned me to go on, and with a sigh I 

 retook my weary way over the lonely valley. 



I had not gone far into the darkness before I heard the 

 distant yelping of wolves from the direction of the chaparral. 

 Those who have heard these demon-dogs know their blood- 

 curdling howls ; those who have not may be thankful. I was 

 familiar with them on the plains, but I was not alone then ; 

 now their fiend-like voices gave me the shivers, and I hurried 

 on, hoping to overtake company. I soon found wolves were 

 not the only animals I had to fear, for I was getting on to a 

 range of wild cattle — wild in the sense of running at will, 

 though under ownersliip by the neighboring rancheros. A 



