28 
SPRING IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, 1844 
To-day we travelled steadily and rapidly up the 
valley; for, with our wild animals, any other gait was 
impossible, and making about five miles an hour. About 
1 o’clock we came again among innumerable flowers; 
and a few miles further, fields of the beautiful blue- 
flowering lupine, which seems to love the neighborhood 
of water, indicated that we were approaching a stream. 
We here found this beautiful shrub in thickets, some 
of them being 12 feet in height. Occasionally three 
or four plants were clustered together, forming a grand 
bouquet, about 90 feet in circumference, and 10 feet 
high; the whole summit covered with spikes of flowers, 
the perfume of which is very sweet and grateful. A 
lover of natural beauty can imagine with what pleasure 
we rode among these flowering groves, which filled the 
air with a light and delicate fragrance. We continued 
our road for about half a mile, interspersed through 
an open grove of live oaks, which, in form, were the 
most symmetrical and beautiful we had yet seen in this 
country. The ends of their branches rested on the 
ground, forming somewhat more than a half- sphere of 
very full and regular figure, with leaves apparently 
smaller than usual. 
The California poppy, of a rich orange color, was 
numerous to-day. Elk and several bands of. antelope 
made their appearance. 
Our road was now one continued enjoyment ; and it 
was pleasant, riding among this assemblage of green 
pastures with varied flowers and scattered groves, and 
out of the warm green spring, to look at the rocky and 
snowy peaks where lately we had suffered so much. 
Emerging from the timber, we came suddenly upon the 
Stanislaus river, where we hoped to find a ford, but 
the stream was flowing by, dark and deep, swollen by 
the mountain snows; its general breadth was about 50 
yards. — Capt. John C. Fremont, U. S. A., in the San 
Joaquin Valley, Alta California, Republic of Mexico, 
Mar. 27, 1844. 
