BUSBE-TIT. 
Psaltriparus minimus BOonap. 
PuatTe VIII. 
Osean abounds in natural wonders, a fact well known to the old Spanish 
KS missionaries, when, more than a century ago, they.settled among the Indians. 
Even to-day, although the gold-fever has long subsided, the ‘‘Golden State’’ possesses 
an irresistible attraction. Every year thousands of tourists from both hemispheres pour 
into the famous El Dorado to revel in the grand and majestic scenery, and thousands 
more go there to take up their abode to enjoy one of the most delightful climates on 
earth. There is, probably, no place on the globe, of equal area, that contains so 
many attractions. In wild beauty the majestic Sierras rival the Alps, and in grandeur 
surpass them. Above the snow-line glaciers accumulate, while below are spread vast 
and noble forests. Evergreens screen the mountain slopes, while deciduous trees prevail 
in the valleys and cafions. Murmuring and roaring, foaming and thundering, the 
mountain torrents plunge from the precipitous rocks, incessantly rushing towards the 
Pacific. Crystal mountain lakes, in whose waters charming forests reflect their tufted 
foliage, burst on the view, entrancing the beholder. And above all the delightful climate, 
the unsullied air, the sky, ever blue, ever virginal! Who has not heard of the wonderful 
Yosemite Valley with its magnificent scenery and its waterfalls, surpassing all description; 
or of the gigantic trees’, some of which measure three hundred feet in height, with a 
diameter of twenty feet or more! Descending in the valleys of the mountain streams 
and cafions, we are at once confronted with almost tropical beauty and variety of 
vegetation. 
The gardens abound in eucalypti and acacias, pepper-trees’, palms and araucarias, 
luxuriant pampas-grass and bamboos, while roses, fuchsias, and heliotropes clamber 
about the piazzas and verandas in dense festoons. So vigorous is the growth of all 
these, and many other semi-tropical plants, that they fill with admiration all who have 
seen them previously in green-houses. It would lead me too far from my subject, should 
I attempt to give only a superficial deliniation of the many plants and animals of that 
wonderful region. There exists a marked difference between the flora of California and 
the flora of the East. We note a similar disparity between the eastern and the western 
fauna. The dissimilarity in both cases is, indeed, very singular. Both, in the animal 
and the vegetable kingdom, the giant and the dwarf live in close proximity to each 
other. The grizzly-bear, the king of his family, even to this day inhabits the inaccessible 
heights, and the lordly elk*, all but exterminated, except among the northern Sierras, 
still proudly bears the weight of his branching coronet. The many species of small 
rodents, peculiar to the region, form a world of pygmies. On the summits of the 
mountains reigns the California “Condor,” or Vulture, one of the largest of known 
1 Sequoia gigantea and S. sempervirens. 2 Schinus molle. 8 Cervus americanus. 4 Pseudogryphus californiauus. 
