26 NUTTALL, 
rem ee er le PS ee 
across the distant ocean to that famous group of 
islands (Sandwich Islands) where Cook fell a 
sacrifice to his temerity. Here for the first time 
I beheld the beauties of a tropical vegetation ; a 
season that knows no change but that of spring 
and summer; an elysian land, where nature 
_ food, cordage and mats, and the very reeds which 
border the rivulets are no other than the pre- 
ious sugar cane of commerce, 
Leaving this favored region of perpetual mild- 
ness I now arrived on the shores of California at 
Monterey. The early spring (March) had already 
spread out its varied carpet of flowers. All of 
hues. The forest trees were new: to my view. 
magpie, almost like that of Europe (but with a 
yellow bill), chattered from the branches of an 
oak with leaves like those of the holly. A thorny 
gooseberry, forming a small tree, appeared clad 
with pendulous flowers as brilliant as those of a 
fuchsia. A new plane tree spread its wide arms 
over the dried rivulets. Already the cheerful 
varied ; one vast wilderness, neglected and uncul- 
tivated (1835). The very cattle appeared as wild 
