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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



publishers have produced a fine volume with readable print and 

 generous margins. Into the appendices has been gathered a 

 variety of bibliographical and scientific information that will prove 

 of great interest and value to naturalists. We commend the book 

 unreservedly. W. F. B. 



"Romantic It is refreshing to find, among the volumes 



California." dealing with CaHfornia in its more picturesque 

 phases, a book whose author does not limit his 

 subject-matter to the well-worn theme of the missions. In "Ro- 

 mantic California,"* Mr. Ernest Peixotto has devoted interesting 

 chapters to "Italy in California" and "The Farallones," and has 

 drawn wonderful pictures with both pen and pencil of the ghostly 

 cypress groves of Monterey and the stately redwoods of Bohemia's 

 forest. Those of us who have enjoyed the Sierra Club's weekly 

 tramps about the bay region will be especially interested in the 

 chapters called "Little Journeys from San Francisco," which in- 

 clude descriptions of the peninsula, the region of Tamalpais, and 

 the Piedmont Hills. We cannot but regret, however, that Mr. 

 Peixotto did not devote more than the one. brief chapter to the 

 mountain world, the more so as he upholds our belief that the 

 Sierra Nevada is destined to become one of the great playgrounds 

 of the world. "Colorado and the Rockies have become known as 

 summer resorts. The Sierras will have their turn later. And 

 when their advantages and their beauty are fully realized, and 

 they are provided with the large hotels that the tourist crowd 

 seems to demand, they will surely take their place among the great 

 mountain resorts of the world. In the mean time, they retain a 

 certain primitive charm that the Alps have long since lost and 

 that those of us who love them best will be loath indeed to see 

 disappear. 



"They differ in many ways from other mountains. In the 

 first place they share, with the rest of California, in a perfectly 

 rainless summer. When I think of the dismal days that one often 

 encounters in the Alps, with the snow-peaks shrouded for days in 

 impenetrable clouds, while heavy vapors rise like ghosts from the 

 moist valleys below, or recall the torrential rains of the Black 

 Forest, I cannot but contrast these blighting conditions with the 

 perpetual blue sky, the brilliant clear sunshine, the dry but cool 

 resinous air of the Sierras." 



Mr. Peixotto's drawings alone would place this book in the 

 foremost rank of the out-of-door books of the season. M. R. P. 



*Romantic California. By Ernest Peixotto. Charles Scribner's Sons, 

 New York, 1910. 219 pages; illustrations by the author. Price, $2.50. 



