i68 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



Pass: hazy in distance, the places of the little settle- 

 ments of the Coachella Valley could be guessed : and 

 over all, though now low on the horizon, San Jacinto 

 and San Gorgonio kept the gateway of the Pacific. 

 Mecca, a nondescript hamlet and railway point near 

 the northern margin of the Salton Sea, was now 

 only a few miles away, and at evening we came to 

 rest and welcome at the ranch of a friend who grows 

 the earliest grapes of the season, at appropriate 

 prices, for ''such as choose to buy them." Here we 

 enjoyed again for a few days plentiful hay, cultured 

 society, newspapers, music, and, what seemed the 

 consummation, the sight and sound of water gur- 

 gling day and night from artesian wells. 



The round I had made since leaving the valley 

 had taken me about a hundred and fifty miles, 

 roughly in a circle. Ten miles away was Coachella, 

 whence I had started a week before. 



