166 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
Hesperia is a small village that forms a trade center for ranches 
along Mohave River a few miles to the east and several ranches and 
orchards near by cultivated by irrigation. There are 
oe two of these irrigated orchards just southwest of the 
evation 3,189 feet. yiJlage, and another a mile farther south, on the west 
ete 92.* 
KansasCityf,713 miles. Side of the railway. Some grain is also grown on 
the adjoining plain. Considerable water, which is 
being used for irrigation, is obtained from wells 500 to 800 feet deep. 
Near Hesperia the creosote bush gives place to the Joshua tree 
and other plants suited to the higher altitudes. Between Hesperia 
and Summit there are many cuts in ~~ thick body of gravel and 
sand constituting the great sloping plain. 
The traveler will note as he ascends fie slopes that the bushes 
which are so widely scattered on the desert to the east and north be- 
come thicker and larger, and several new plants appear, notably the 
manzanita,” one of the most beautiful of the highland bushes, which — 
forms a thick growth on the higher mountain slopes of this part of 
southern California. A far western variety of juniper (Juniperus 
californica utahensis) is also present, together with a peculiar pifion 
(Pinus monophylla) differing from the Arizona tree by bearing larger 
nuts and asingle leaf. Its nuts have been an important food product 
for the Indians. The beautiful Yucca whipplei is conspicuous, with 
its straight stalks which in the early summer bear a great cluster of 
white flowers. 
At Summit the railway reaches the top of the grade necessary to 
carry it through Cajon Pass, but the actual divide is in a cut a short 
distance west of the station. Cajon Pass is the 
— great gap through the mountain barrier between the 
oeabaere Si tate desert and the San Bernardino Valley, a gap occu- 
pied and drained by Cajon Creek and its tributaries. 
_ The train enters the pass proper as it descends from the divide on 
' Near mileposts 50 and 52, where the color, with anntiorsd beds and streaks of 
railway ascends along the side of a small | gra 
valley, the cuts are 30 feet deep and the 
gravels and sands are well exposed 
Between mileposts 52 and 54 some of the 
gravel is consolidated into a loose con- 
* The manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) 
a shrub having a smoo 
chocolate color, small palo-ercen roundish 
leaves, and berries that resemble dimin- 
utive apples. It is this resemblance that 
gives the shrub its common name, Spanish 
for little apple, by which itis known every- 
where on the Pacific coast. Bearsare very 
fond of these berrics. The manzanita cov- 
ers many of the hills in California with a 
there has been tilting of the crust of — 
earth in this region since the material 
was deposited. Near the mountains this 
dip is noticeable in many of the expo- 
sures. Between mileposts 55 and 56 there 
are some deep cuts in fine sand of buff 
stiff,almost impenetrable growth. Its wood 
is hard, and the blaze from an old gnarled 
root cheers many a western fireplace. 
