WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



19 



nearby approached us holding a glass jar in 

 his hand. He said: "You folks seem to be 

 interested in bugs and such like, maybe you 

 would like to have this thing," at the same 

 time presenting the jar to us. Upon looking 

 into it we found an enormous scorpion, which 

 appeared as if it would measure over six 

 inches in length. It was light in color, very 

 much as if it had been bleached out, quite 

 unlike the specie in the north in this respect. 

 We received the gift with thanks and the 

 monster was added -to the curiosities of our 

 collection in Piedmont. 



Of all the canyons mentioned in the intro- 

 duction of this chapter, Chino is the last of 

 these interesting places to be described. It 

 was visited by us several times, but as the 

 notes of the first trip are more complete that 

 record is used in the following description: 



Friday, April 20 — This was the day we fixed 

 for the trip to Chino Canyon. As there was 

 no road for an automobile, it was either go 

 on horseback or walk. The point in the 

 canyon we intended to reach was five and a 

 half miles from the inn. We chose to walk 

 rather than be bothered with horses, be- 

 sides there was much to see while walking 

 which would be inconvenient to examine if 

 we were on horseback. By half past seven 

 we had our breakfast and were off on the 

 journey, taking a lunch with us for it was to 

 be an all-day excursion. For the first couple 

 of miles we did not follow any trail, prefer- 

 ring the untraveled section, for what greater 

 novelty it might present to us. Not very long 

 after leaving the hotel we discovered there 

 was an increase in the grade which grew 

 6teeper as we entered the m >uth of the can- 

 yon. At this point we were well up on "the 

 fan." struggling around great boulders and 

 dodging cactus and other spine-laden bushes. 

 It was growing warm so we concluded it 

 would be advisable to find the trail and con- 

 sequently easier traveling. We picked it up 

 without much trouble but there would have 

 been some difficulty in following it if it had 

 not been marked by the little piles of rocks 

 as had been done in Palm canyon to indicate 

 the trail there. There is so little travel to 

 Chino by people on foot that long stretches 

 of the trail were unmarked by footprints, 

 and in places the wind and rain had obliter- 

 ated it. Under foot the going was easier but 

 the day was growing warmer, and our course 

 led us steadily up, up. There was a pipe- 

 line down the canyon along which the trail 

 zig-zagged. The pressure breaks scattered 

 along supplied us with all the water we wanted 

 to drink, otherwise I think we would have 

 been quite thirsty before reaching the end of 

 the journey. 



We saw more new flowers on our way, one 

 of which I at first thought belonged to th«» 

 cruciferae, as its cluster of little half-inch 

 white four-petaled blossoms were somewhat 

 after the form of the mustard blossom, but a 

 closer inspection showed it to be a member 

 of the Evening Primrose family, a Chylisma, 

 var. calavacfirmis. So far as I could le'arn 

 from the natives it bore no common name, 

 although it was a pretty flower with maroon 



dots at the base of the petals, yellow stamens 

 and green stigma which invariably laid over to 

 one side of the flower as if to avoid too close 

 association with the neighboring anthers. 



An odd flower that attracted our attention 

 I found later was called the bladder-bush. It 

 grew on thorny bushes three or four feet high. 

 The little, bag-shaped, magenta colored flow- 

 ers are born along a stem and rather loosely 

 placed. After they wither the calyxes enlarge 

 and form bags larger than the flowers and 

 take the place of the blossoms. As the 

 calyxes are composed of a tissue-like substance 

 of a bright color, the blossom stems appear as 

 though they were bearing two kinds of flow- 

 ers of different colors. 



I found wel> up in the canyon a couple of 

 white flowers which had every appearance of 

 being members of the Pink family. 



Among all the strange flowers it was a 

 pleasure to meet an old acquaintance, a Mimu- 

 lus. It was the variety Brevipes. Another 

 flower which we found in bloom was the In- 

 dian paint brush. It is not exactly like the 

 flower of that name growing in our part of 

 the country, but near enough to claim a close 

 relationship. 



The birds noticed on this trip and not seen 

 on any of our other excursions were blue 

 birds, mountain quail, song sparrows, a hawk, 

 and a little bird probably a warbler that we 

 could not identify. White-crowned sparrows 

 were numerous, but unlike the birds of this 

 species around Piedmont, they did not sing. 

 These birds were also constant visitors in and 

 about the hotel grounds, showing but little 

 fear. 



The sun's rays beating down upon us in 

 the breezeless canyon caused us to remove our 

 coats and unbutton our collars, but as we 

 trudged along, this curious plant, that strange 

 flower, a fleeting beetle here and there, 

 caused us to forget the discomforts of the 

 heat and to think only of the pleasures of the 

 trip. 



The "fan" of Chino extends back into the 

 canyon for a distance of fully three miles 

 from the portal and nearly as far in the op- 

 posite direction from that point. The object- 

 ive point of our trip was the upper end of the 

 "fan," where through some choking of the 

 canyon, probably during the period of sub- 

 mergence, a fairly level section of land formed 

 embracing five or ten acres. It was now 

 covered with a fine growth of large trees and 

 shrubs, besides there were two or three large 

 patches of meadow with green sod, all mak- 

 ing a cheerful and restful spot. 



We reached this oasis about half past 

 eleven. My pedometer had recorded some- 

 thing over six miles. We estimated that more 

 than a half mile of this distance was due to 

 our divergences from the trail in examination 

 of shrubs, plants, flowers and chasing beetles. 



We found the site of the Nature Man's for- 

 mer home or cabin that he built when he 

 first came to the desert and which he aban- 

 doned because it afforded more solitude than 

 he needed. However, the site was all that 

 was left of it; there were only ashes and the 

 indestructible parts remaining. It had been 



