THE WEST AMERICAN SCIENTIST. 41 



cooked and cate them; more, it is true, by way of experiment than anything else. 

 They are, however, very x^alatable; the flesh is a little tough, but sweet, without 

 bad flavor, and resembles eels somewhat, but is not so greasy. From India Flaca 

 we rode five leagues to Rosario, where we filled our barrel and went two leagues 

 farther to a deep canyon in the coast called the Arroyo Honda, where we made an- 

 other dry camp. Having passed Rosario, we were told to expect a great improve- 

 ment in I he country. The rocky tracts were to disappear and beautiful valleys 

 were to take their place. Of a truth, there was a great change, but Rosario is 

 rather an arbitiary point; San Quentin would be a nearer approximation to the 

 truth. In tie morning rode nine leagues to San Simeon, or, as it has lately been 

 christened, the city of Santa Maria. The road lay along the coast, much of it on 

 the hard sand beach in view of the surf, until we struck inland a mile or two below 

 Sta. Maria. * * * * 



' Bidding adieu to the city which is to be, we went eight miles to the salt-ponds 

 of S;m Quentin. Riding over a low hill, we found ourselves on the margin of one of 

 the lakes. The?e are some half a dozen in number, and cover areas of from one to 

 five acres each. The salt crystalizes in the mud flat around the margin in sheets 

 nearly half an inch thick. This is collected in heaps and needs no preparation to fit 

 it for shipment. About San Quentin the pasture was exactly like that of Upper 

 California in its best condition. Alfilerilla, alfalfa, burr and red clovers make the 

 greater part of the forage plants, while the yellow poppy, primrose, and other fa- 

 miliar flowers, complete the resemblance. In fact, the belt from here to Rosario 

 may be laid down as the dividing line between the semi-tropical floras of the lower 

 peninsula and the more northern vegetation of Upper California. Many speies of 

 cactus disap[ ear soon after leaving Rosario, as well as a large number of other plan's 

 with which we had become familiar; and of those which do continue, a large number 

 cling tenaciously to the mountains or highlands, and are even there scattered and 

 thinning out. On the other hand, we had noticed for more than a week one after 

 another of our old northern friends coming in, first scattered, stunted, and evidently 

 away from home, but gradually increasing in size and numler, almost insensibly, 

 but noje the less surely supplanting their southern neighbors. This overlapping of 

 forms takes place much more ma kedly in the high land than in the plains. In the 

 latter the vegetation is much more sectional, that is it resembles much m'^re closely 

 the district to which it belongs . As an illustration, an Upper Californian, sud- 

 denly transported to San Quentin, would have no special reason to suppose himself 

 out o? his state; while if he were placed on the mountains directly east, or even 

 northeast, he would find himself amid the same plants that make the characteristic 

 landsc pe about San Borja, or even farther south. Two or three miles from San 

 Quentin we saw ths last cardon, or columnar cactus; and in the line ®f demarcation 

 which I had laid down, we encountere 1 the first buckeyes and elders. Chapparal 

 oaks make their appearance between this point and San Telmo, and the hills sup- 

 port, for the first time, a scattered growth of chamiso. The ceanothus, with its lit- 

 tle bunches of purplish flowers, appears about the same lime.' 



C. R. ORCUTT. 



