174 



Through San Gorgonio Pass. 



D. S. JORDAN. 



DAVID STAER JORDAN. 



Stanford University starts out with every 

 prospect of becoming the great educational cen- 

 ter of the far west, if not of the whole United 

 States. It has by far the largest foundation 

 endowment of any university in the world, and 

 many old and noted institutions have received 

 in all their history less than this university of 

 tlie Golden State has at the start. Senator Stan- 

 lord and wife, by deed of trust in 1877, conveyed 

 to the use of the university their magnificent 

 estates, comprising 83,000 acres of the finest 

 wheat and fruit lands in the State, cash enough 

 to comjilete all the buildings and enough more 

 to make the total endowment at least $25,000,000. All this as a 

 memorial to their dead son. 



For president of the institution they have selected Dr. David 

 Starr Jordan, almost a giant in body as in mind, and he is now organ- 

 izing the faculty which is to be composed of the most eminent spe- 

 cialists to be found in the world. Dr. Jordan was born in Gaines- 

 ville, N. Y., about forty years ago, graduated at an early age from 

 Cornell university, and soon became noted for scientific investiga- 

 tions, especially in ichthyology. After experience as teacher and 

 lecturer in various places. Dr. Jordan, in 1875, became i^rofessor of 

 biology in Butler university, Indianapolis, and in 1879 was chosen 

 I)resident of the Indiana State University at Bloomington, a position 

 he held until called to preside over the destinies of Stanford Univer- 

 sity. As an author he is well and favorably known. His numerous 

 memoirs on fishes, and his ' Fishes of North America ' in which every 

 fish known to inhabit our waters is described, (with Dr. Gilbert's 

 co-labors) are well known to everj^ person interested in ichthyolog- 

 ical matters. His 'Manual of the Vertebrates of North America' is 

 a cyclopedic work and is found in every naturalist's library, where it 

 is an every day helper. 



The 'Leland Stanford, Jr., University' as its full title runs, is 

 located at Palo Alto, about thirty miles from San Francisco, in the 

 loveliest section of the Santa Clara valley. The buildings now com- 

 pleted and ready for occupancy, are among the most noble structures 

 on the continent, and are a lasting monument to the loved sou and a 

 philanthropist's generosity. F. W. Ooding. 



THROUGH SAN GORGONIO PASS. 



(From Pacific Rural Press xli. 422.) 



From San Bernardino, eastward to the sandy plains of the Col- 

 orado desert, there is a gradual rise until one reaches the summit at 

 Beaumont, and from there it is one slow descent until one reaches 

 the railway station at Salton, 250 feet below sea level. From San 



