TO PUEBLO DE LOS ANGELES. 195 



be sure, we lacked napkins and finger bowls, but in view of 

 our other luxuries we pardoned the want of these. Our 

 custom at meals had been to sit on the ground, or, if lazy, to 

 lean on our elbows, while we helped ourselves from the frying- 

 pan in the centre of the group, using our fingers when the 

 temperature of the eatables would admit of it. 



Greatly refreshed by my night's rest on the floor I was on 

 my way early the next morning. Passing through the streets 

 of the village, between vine-embowered gardens and scattered 

 shade trees, which looked refreshing to eyes so long used to 

 desert scenery, I emerged to a valley, the most beautiful I ever 

 saw. I was now on the western boundary of the great plain 

 I had been traveling over since leaving San Bernardino, 

 which here arose in sweeping billows as it neared the range 

 of hills on the west. Hitherto it had been semi-desert, 

 naturally so or from drought, but now a covering of herbage, 

 vividly green, spread over the plain from hills to mountains. 

 Pasturing on this were flocks and herds which filled the air 

 with neighing, lowing and bleating. All that was needed 

 were shepherds and tuneful pipes to make this a veritable 

 Arcadia, in which mortals might lead a life of peaceful happi- 

 ness, undisturbed by the turmoil of the outer world. Xear 

 the centre of the valley arose the white walls of a village 

 which gleamed brightly in the rays of the morning sun. 

 Beyond was the mountain, green at the base, and changing 

 to gray and brown as the outlines climbed upw^ards. Then 

 came patches of snow, and finally an unsullied sheet of white- 

 ness which spread upward and clothed the summit thousands 

 of feet above the plain. Long had I journeyed amid scenes 

 of awful desolation, over black and rugged mountains, amid 

 sandy deserts and by the shores of poisonous creeks and rivers, 

 and now that I had passed all these and reached the borders 

 of civilization, it was infinitely refreshing to look on such a 

 picture as was now spread before me. With my imagination 



