128 East and West 
time and suddenly breaking upon the vision, 
are inspiring beyond anything else in Nature; 
but they are all too evanescent and though 
you should gaze for ever, never again will 
you receive them as in that first moment. I 
had long wondered what lay on the other side 
of that solid wall of the Santa Inez, which 
affording nowhere a vista or loophole seemed 
to suggest some mystery, and like all moun- 
tains, exerted its spell upon the beholder 
till he should ascend and look over for him- 
self. It gives no sign that the interior world 
it conceals is of such magnitude and grandeur. 
The desire at once seized me to cross the in- 
tervening cafions and barrancas to the distant 
San Rafael and see what lay on the other 
side of that. In the mountains one never 
comes to the end. 
Like a garment the chaparral covered the 
treeless spurs and peaks of the Santa Inez— 
a jungle inhabited by road-runners and coyotes 
and only interrupted by outcropping ledges 
and stray boulders. Watered by the winter 
rains and dews and the summer fogs, it is tall 
and luxuriant and almost impenetrable in 
places without a machete or axe. Afoot you 
are lost in it; on horseback youcannot possibly 
get through without a trail. The chaparral 
