180 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



morn we start along the upward trail. Soon the 

 sun rises and the heat makes us long for the higher 

 altitudes. Our way is through fairly open country, 

 dry as powder, and clothed with wild oats and 

 yellowish grasses, scattered dry oaks and other 

 greyish green trees, giving the country the appear- 

 ance of a dried park, for nowhere except near water 

 is there any green. Down in a partly dry river bed, 

 which gleams intensely white in the glare of the 

 sun, we see a huge log stranded among the smooth 

 boulders. This log, about sixteen feet in diameter, 

 we are told, is part of a redwood tree. It has 

 lain in this river-bed no man can say how many 

 years. Then we realise that above there is much 

 to be seen, and we may yet ride through the world- 

 famous forests of the sequoia or big tree. 



Gradually the country changes, vegetation 

 becomes more abundant and varied, and as we 

 go higher the colour is greener and more pleasing 

 and restful to the eyes. On we go ever upward, 

 along narrow, steep trails overhung with shrubbery, 

 through dense thickets of syringa and white hlac, 

 whose fragrance is almost overpowering. Later 

 on the sun drops to the westward ; we reach tlie 

 conifer forests ; immense spruces and firs, with 

 here and there a small cluster of diminutive red- 

 woods, small of their kind but nearly 200 feet 

 high, hfting their thinly-leafed tops high above 

 all surrounding trees. Flowers become abun- 

 dant — the exquisite mariposa hly, lupins of many 

 colours ; but we are not yet in the land of 

 flowers. Evening overtakes us as we reach the 

 expected camp ground, and the selection of a camp 



