A Journey Across the SierrasS. California. 301 
hog.-^ devour them eag-erly and are apparently immune from their 
bites. Before we had left it many yards, a Buzzard swooped 
down upon it. I think that these birds kill a good many snakes 
on their own account, as I have irequently seen them hunting 
country containing nothing i>ut snakes and Jack Eabliits. We 
now passed the first house we had seen on the journey. Ft 
had evidently been deserted for a number of years, as it was 
buried with sand up to the l>edroom windows. The corral 
also was buried, with liere and there a larger post than 
ordinary showing above the sand. Some Eastern farmer, or 
European settler, probably quite unacquainted Avith Western 
sandstorms had sunk his capital in what must have been a 
hopeless struggle from the first. Here we saw the one and 
only live Antelope I have met with in California. Tt passed 
across the track about 200 yards in front of us. There are 
still a good many of them left in the state, but they keep 
away from civilization. I have sometimes seen them on sale 
in the butchers' shops in 'Frisco and Los Angeles. 
We now began to ascend gradually. A mile or two in 
front of us was what is known as the flower prairie. It 
looked exactly like a brilliantly coloured carpet. It 
was a very beautiful sight, and a gi-eat relief to the eyes 
after the glare from the sand that we had been ])assing through. 
I am no botanist, and couldn't name any of the flowers seen, 
but they were in great patches of every conceivable colour, 
and as we d]'ove through them I noticed that some of them 
were very similar to our English wild flowers. Here we 
again met with bird life. The Horned Lark {Otocorys alpes- 
tris rubra) and the Sparrow Lark (C. f)rnmmncus Htrigafns) 
were amongst the birds seen. These tame, but attractive 
little birds are found all through the great Central valleys, and, 
I have many times found their nests on the ground in the 
vineyards. The Horned Lark is very like our Shore Lark 
{Otocorys alpestris). The big Yellow-breasted Lark {S. magna 
neglecta) was also nesting amongst the flowers. A very 
handsome bird but a poor songster. Right in front of us 
was a clump of trees, the first we had seen since leaving 
Buena Vista. On one of the highest of these a large bird was 
sitting. This sulTered us to approach quite closely and proved 
to be a Golden Eagle (Afjitila dinjxacfos), a considerably 
