THE SEQUOIA 321 



he made me lie down on the bed, then reached 

 under it, brought forth a sack of apples and ad- 

 vised me to keep " chawing " at them until he 

 got supper ready. Finer, braver hospitality I 

 never found in all this good world so often 

 called selfish. 



Next day with hearty, easy alacrity the moun- 

 taineer procured horses, prepared and packed pro- 

 visions, and got everything ready for an early 

 start the following morning. Well mounted, 

 we pushed rapidly up the South Fork of the 

 river and soon after noon were among the giants 

 once more. On the divide between the Tule 

 and Deer Creek a central camp was made, and 

 the mountaineer spent his time in deer-hunting, 

 while with provisions for two or three days I ex- 

 plored the woods, and in accordance with what I 

 had been told soon reached the southern extrem- 

 ity of the belt on the South Fork of Deer Creek. 

 To make sure, I searched the woods a consider- 

 able distance south of the last Deer Creek grove, 

 passed over into the basin of the Kern, and 

 climbed several high points commanding extensive 

 views over the sugar-pine woods, without seeing a 

 single Sequoia crown in all the wide expanse to 

 the southward. On the way back to camp, how- 

 ever, I was greatly interested in a grove I discov- 

 ered on the east side of the Kern River divide, 

 opposite the North Fork of Deer Creek. The 

 height of the pass where the species crossed over 



