of creek for a camp ground when i came upon a strange dark looking man who had been cord wood he seemed surprised at seeing me so i sat down with him on the live oak log he had been cutting and made the mountains op haste to give a reason for my appearance in his solitude explaining that i was anxious to find out something about the mountains and meant to make my way up creek next morning then he kindly invited me to camp with him and led me to his little cabin situated at the foot of the mountains where a small spring out of a bank overgrown with wild rose bushes after supper when the daylight was gone he explained that he was out of candles so we sat in the dark while he gave me a sketch of his life in a mixture of spanish and english he was born in his father irish his mother spanish he had been a hunter etc rambling always and wearing his life away in mere waste but now he was going to settle down his past life he said was of no account but the future was promising he was going to make money and marry a spanish woman people mine here for water as for gold he had been running a into a spur of the mountain back of his cabin my prospect is good he said and if i chance to strike a good strong flow i soon be worth or for that flat out there referring to a small irregular patch of two or three acres in size that had been deposited by creek during some flood season � that flat is large enough for a nice and the bank behind the cabin will do for a and after watering my own trees and vines i will have some water left to sell to my neighbors below me down the valley and then he continued i can keep bees and make money a oh the de h the mountains of that way too for the mountains above here are just full of honey in the summer time and one of my neighbors down here says that he will let me have a whole lot of on shares to start with you see i ve a good thing i m all right now all this in the sunken choked flood bed of a mountain stream leaving the bees out of the count most would as soon think of settling on the summit of mount next morning wishing my hopeful good luck i set out on my shaggy excursion about half an hour s walk above the cabin i came to the fall famous throughout the valley as the finest yet discovered in the san mountains it is a charming little thing with a low sweet voice singing like a bird as it from a in a short ledge some or forty feet into a round mirror pool the face of the cliff back of it and on both sides is smoothly covered and with against which the white water shines out in relief like a silver instrument in a velvet case hither come the san lads and to gather and away their hot holidays in the cool water glad to escape from their commonplace palm gardens and orange groves the delicate grows on rocks within reach of the spray while broad and cast soft mellow shade over a rich profusion of bee flowers growing among in front of the pool � the fall the flowers the bees the rocks and leafy shade forming a charming little the bee poem of the last of a series extending down the slopes of mount san through the rugged foam beaten of the main from the base of the fall i followed the ridge that forms the western rim of the basin to the summit of one of the principal peaks which is about feet above sea level then turning eastward i crossed the middle of the basin forcing a way over its many subordinate and across its eastern rim having to contend almost everywhere with the and most impenetrable growth of honey bushes i had ever encountered since first my began most of the is leafy nearly to the ground here the main stems are naked for three or four feet and with dead twigs forming a stiff through which even the bears make their way with difficulty i was compelled to creep for miles on all and in following the bear often f of hair on the bushes where they had forced themselves through for feet or so above the fall the ascent was made possible only by tough cushions of club moss that clung to the rock above this the ridge away to a thin knife blade for a few hundred yards and thence to the summit of the range it carries a mane of here and there small occur on rocky places commanding fine views across the cultivated valley to the ocean these i found by the tracks were favorite and resting places for the wild animals � bears wolves etc � which abound here the mountains of and would have to be taken into account in the establishment of bee in the deepest i found wood rat villages � groups of huts four to six feet high built of sticks and leaves in rough piles like rat i noticed a good many bees too most of them wild the tame honey bees seemed languid and wing weary as if they had come all the way up from the valley after reaching the summit i had time to make only a hasty survey of the basin now glowing in the sunset gold before hastening down into one of the in search of water emerging from a particularly tedious breadth of i found myself free and erect in a beautiful park like grove of mountain live oak 