SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 77c 



Island, at three different seasons with a tarrying at tiny Santa. 

 Barbara Island and one special trip there, absorbed all my lei- 

 sure; while the heights of San Clemente ever upheld their- 

 deeps, unknown to me! So near— and yet I knew them not! 



However, last year, after living' there three months, I have 

 a real satisfaction in thinking I know something of that Island.. 

 When I left I felt I would never again care to see places so ter- 

 rible ; but I Und my heart following my eyes from the dear old 

 Catalina trails as I see San Clemente this winter lying in all its- 

 amethystine beauty, like an Indian arrow-head, tipped with, 

 shining stretches of sand, enshrined by the white arms of the- 

 sea. 



Eighteen miles long and nearly 2000 feet elevation upon 

 its greatest height, it is by far the most inaccessible of all the 

 Channel Islands. 



A rolling upland strewn with jagged volcanic rocks, which 

 cut the boots at every step, reaches its greatest altitude on the 

 north coast— a coast gashed by precipitous and bold gorges, 

 not one of which could properly be called a canyon. 



The south coast rises from the sea with perpendicular walls, 

 fifty to three hundred feet high, where it surprises you by a 

 flat which may be followed the entire length of the south coast, 

 over a trail the worst of all the trails which I have followed in 

 many thousand miles' tramping on these Channel Islands in 

 the last ten years. It winds and turns and breaks into "cuts" 

 and never a moment is the foot on level ground, but constantly 

 caught in the crevices of the gnawing lava rocks, while a glim- 

 mering heat waves under the eaves of the heights, from whence 

 great arroyos leap to the river flat below, casting rivers of 

 fresh rock upon the already over-burdened rim; between these 

 arroyos terraces rise in endless succession. 



You walk there in October and November and the aridity 

 is oppressive ; but in May the same trail is a miracle of color. 

 Eschscholtzia ramosa starring the way, while Gilia Nevinii,. 

 whose heart is the true turquoise, so that I called it "The Tur- 

 quoise Daisy," is so plentiful that the arms could be filled with 

 it. Senecio Lyoni is nearly as common as everywhere, one to 

 three feet tall. 



The sweet "Lava Daisy" — Malcothrix foliosa Greene — is. 

 here in its own home and special joy of existence. You marvel 

 that it can draw its life from rocks which are hot to the hand 

 and which even burn the feet in walking. 



On the north coast from the highest line the gorges leap 

 into the sea below, five hundred to two thousand feet, so sud- 

 denly, and often so unexpectedly, that no man can follow such 

 ways in safety; there are rims of beaches below which can be- 



