136 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



Dead Man's Point to the coyotes and the murder- 

 ous sun. 



Here we turned up a narrower canon leading di- 

 rectly into the mountains. The grade became steeper 

 and the vegetation more varied. Caiion after caiion 

 debouched into ours, dozens of them, all dry, bak- 

 ing, shivering with heat. There is no need to describe 

 the country in detail ; it was all alike. We ground our 

 way on and up, the sun, now clear, reflected upon 

 us from the rocky walls. My canteen, replenished 

 after lunch, soon grew too hot to be put to the lips 

 with comfort, while the water itself was at a tem- 

 perature of over 100°, I am sure, and every drink 

 threw me into immediate perspiration. 



At three o'clock we came to the next watering- 

 place and halted for the day. We had made just 

 twenty miles in ten hours of travel. A well is main- 

 tained here, after a fashion, by the county authori- 

 ties. There was the usual camp litter, also a rough 

 bed and a stove, Emmons's property, for this was 

 one of his regular stopping-places. A little way back 

 he had inquired whether I liked bees or minded being 

 stung: also asking Kaweah's sentiments on the same 

 point. On approaching the well I caught the bearing 

 of his question. The place was literally alive with 

 bees. The air was like a swarm in flight, and the well 

 itself resounded with the buzzing of thousands down 

 there in the dark. However, water must be got for 

 the horses, though we had enough for ourselves in 

 the canteens, which was fortunate, for bucket after 

 bucket came up covered with dead bees, and the 

 liquid had a fetid smell from the myriads of decay- 



