The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-16

stone cave fronting the west and overlook
ing the whole valley and bay. Here, IN
sepulcher Of stone, the old Russian freedom
lover expects to rest from his labors.
HILL AND BAY.
From the summit of the Coast Range one
obtains wonderful combination Of hill and
bay, Of cultivated l0wland and wild upland,
Of village. town, meadow, grain fields,
orchards and vineyards, stretching TO tne
blue San Mateo hills in soft undulations ana
under the golden haze of the Californian at
mosphere. South rise Mission Peak, Mount
Hamilton, where the Lick Observatory is
situated; north is Mount Diablo and north.
east is Tamalpais. San Francisco is in full
sight, crowned on its peninsula, and the
broad bay fills the distance with color.
As one rides down the eastern slopes OF
the Coast Range, after having explored its
recesses thoroughly, almost the first thing he
notices is the wonderful color Of the San
Joaquin plains. 1t is from the acres of wild
flowers that grow In great colonies OF pnr-
pies and colds, of blues and crimsons. Inc
whole plain for miles is brilliant with lilac,
hued gilllaS, pale-cream cups, scarlet-Husned
gold of wild peoples. ultramarine blue OF
larkspurs, tine clear heaven blue Of nemophlI,,
las-theSe and multitudes of others, all
woven into Persian-carpet pattern, OF
which the separate figures are acre-wlde
SpldS0eS OF cOIOT.
In many respects the San Joaquin Is
now an old story, monoton0uS to cross, and
interesting only because of the immense ex-
tent of country now being irrigated ana
turned into gardens and vineyards. But
there is an unknown land of the lower San
| Joaquin, near the mouth of the river, along
the Sacramento and around the innumerable
tule islands. Take a duck-hunter's punt and
| push into the winding channels of these
| fresh-water sloughs. Here are blue marsh
lakes, lonely ana lovely, as beautiful as the
expanses of the Louisiana bayous. Over
| them lean borders of wild sunf1Owers, tules,
reeds, cat-tails, grasses in blossom and pur-
| ple marsh flowers. Clumps Of ancient will
| lows, as boary as those that grow by the
| rivers of Holland. cover Indian mounds on
| these green islands. In a slough one
sometimes finds the decaying hulk Of
gotten towns and to deserted river
landings, or embarcaderos," as they
were once called. SterD-wheel steamers
pass with deck-loads of grain, hay and fire
wood. Italian and Chinese fishermen drag
| their nets in the deeper channels. Dredgers
lie beside the fertile islands that money and
| energy have reclaimed. building the
levees still higher against the yellow April
floods from the Serras. l once had my
horse and myself terried across from island
to island and rode through the heart of this
Holland OF California, that extends for nifty
claimed islands have prosperous diaries,
broad wheat fields, acres of vegetables ana
small fruits; but the reclaimed territory Is
only small part of the whole area of the
tule owlands. 1t is the great center of the
wild fowl hunting in California after the
first November rains.
AN IMPERCEPTIBLE ASCENT.
From the lowlands one reaches the foot
hills Of the Sierras by an almost imper-
ceptibe ascent. The finer horticultural
developments are near the hills, and the
interest of the journey increases as one
leaves the valley. Along the creeks are
immense masses of the wild grapevine Of
California. They grow on the bottoms and
climb over the tallest trees, trailing down to
the waters edge, forming leafy domes and
arches, and miDgling with oaks, laurels and
Sycamores. The ordinary tourist never sees
them; but in such valleys as Napa, SonOma
and Santa Clara, and especially along the
upper Sacramento, they are superb. and the
pride OF all the old settlers. Some lines one
can ride for hours past vines of this fragrant
wild grape and under its shelter
A great deal has been said about the Cali
fornia Nssions-those adobe churches and
priest gardens OF the last century, whose
picturesque ruins are found in the coast
counties south Of San Francisco. But man
who rides over California finds many adobe
ruins of different sort, the remains of the
private residences of the Spanish era.
lHtoe OtCuI III TIC iupSt UtAptCteu pldCeS
One Is riding up canyon in the foothills
and comes upon an adobe ruin, fast crumb-
ling into mound of black clay. Perhaps
IL stands beside giant white oak or pine.
There is always stream or spring near,
and often, too, there are fig trees or grape
vines, neglected, run wild, trampled by wan
dering cattle, but still bearing fruit. The
traveller who studies California from the &C
cuStomed routes will seldom have chance
to see these old ad0bas in the foothills !;
they have not been listed and described By
local annquarianS l remember some of the
rivers OF the Sierras-the Costumes. the
Calaveras, the Stanislaus, the Mokelumne
the American, the McCloud-along whose
banks the landscape painters Of half a con-
tineat might wander and find inspiration.
Tracing the course of such q river as the
Mokeiumne upward from the valley, one
finds low mounds OF gray gravel in the re-
cesses of the green-grass hills, over which
thousands of miners toiled in the brave days
OF 40 There are knobs blue as the sky and
white as sea-f0am with flowers and wild
shrubs. and out of the deep rayines dark
promontoreS lift abrupt rocks and silver
needle pines above the river. Across 4
mountain tributary, that foams down be-
tween walls Of brown and yellow, rude
bridge extends, and pioneers cabin nesiles
In the manzanita bushes and under tall oaks
beyond. while through his rocky hillside gar
den flow fertiiZing streams from an old
hume built by the Argonauts of California
HAPPY AND CARELESS FREEDOM.
All summer long | rode through the
Sierras, under forests of Douglass spruce,
sugar-pine, Lawson cypress and seQueias.
j rode in happy and careless freedom by
mountain roads, by trails of old prospectors
through valleys as yet peopled only by a
pastoral community. Sometimes for week
l was on one OF tue great Sierra highways
that bind the mountain counties tpgather-a
highway throbbing with life, cloudy with
dust Of freight-teams, busting with travel
OF every sort. Old t0ll-gates stand by
bridg' across the rivers; old waySide inns
look from under apple and peach trees
Now and then | found town deep hid in
the quartz-veined hills, and changing from
the mining era 10 the still more golden era of
horticulture. And all along the great high
wav IL wise hOrSeman reins his horse to talk
with shepherds driving their fiocks to higher
pastures, with miners going with pick and
drill to work their claims, with hunters
riding down from the mountains with their
game slunR behind their saddle.
Half mile away from the great highway
and all grows still. Loneliness brOojs in
the forest. ! follow narrow bride paths,
'short cuts" from farm to farm. Some
times the cabin TO which they led had been
deserted, the door broken in, the leaves
drifted on the floor, the tracks of wildcat
and coyote everywhere. In these wider
nesses human life GIBBS and flows. Nature
is SO strong that she soon ObliterateS the
feeble traces of men, and takes back part
of her domain from the careless hands of
the pioneers. Then come the hunters, the
fishermen, the botanists. the pleasure-seekers.
and rediscover it all. That is what will
happen with that high hill country of Cali
fOrnia which is now so unknown region.-
Charles Howard Shinn in November Outing,