64 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
The trend of the San Jacinto Range is from the peak towards 
the southeast for twenty-five miles to Santa Rosa Mountain, 
and presses closer and closer to the desert until it begins indeed 
to take on its atmosphere at Van de Venter Flat, at an eleva- 
tion of 4500 feet; the remarkable Pinus quadrifolia lives in and 
on the banks of Coyote Canyon. It is there the predominating 
tree, and perhaps would present a more pleasing appearance 
had you not come directly from the great forests of Straw- 
berry Valley; it certainly could not afford a more interesting 
sight. In its youth, it is as trim and indeed as symmetrical as a 
fir, although it later becomes scraggy and loose-limbed. It is 
said to be of very slow growth and will not endure trimming or 
the pruning knife. The leaves number generally from two to 
five and there are those where two predominate. 
The largest trees are thirty feet high and the Van de Venters, 
who were born in this country, seem to reeall no perceptible in- 
crease in number of these pines in twenty-five years. The oider 
boy can remember when a Pinus monophylla beside the trail 
tcday, and about twelve feet high, was only two or three feet 
tall when he was a lad of seven years. Pinus monophylla is very 
common in all desert ranges from 3000 to 4000 feet elevation. 
Both these pines bear profusely and the cones are identical 
to all appearances, but the nut of the P. quadrifolia is hard, 
while that of P. monophylla is soft.“ The only family of the 
Santa Rosa Indians which now remains at the old Indian vil- 
lage, up in the Santa Rosa Mountains, say that these pines 
(P. quadrifolia) were planted in Coyote Canyon by their fore- 
fathers; when, they do not know. They still gather the nuts 
for food: 
Facing northeast, Coyote Canyon is to the right of Van de 
Venter Flat about a good mile. From Van de Venter Flat, 
Buss Canyon breaks away to the Colorado Desert. This flat 
is really a pass between San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Moun- 
tains. Five hundred feet below this pass Pinus monophylla 
begins to grow and is more or less common in all the desert 
slopes. El Toro Mountain, which rises yet east of Santa Rosa 
Mountain, has a curious top—as though it had a hollow cone, 
and one day, from too great a desert blast, had crumbled 
and fallen in; this mass of old rock-dust seems marked with 
foot prints of the earthquake, yet strangely enough P. mono- 
phylla is thickly set there. 
Deep Canyon, which is crossed on the Martinez trail, has a 
trickling streamlet and in its bed the ash (Fraxinus) grows 
to be a tree. Populus abounds and even elders fifty feet high 
show their beautiful trunks against the over-toppling crags; 
yet fifty feet away Yucea and the Spanish Bayonet grow hap- 
