The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-05-11

Client. Stay out Of doors from sunrise to sunset
and be In the saddle at least half OF the time.
Now and then, for a change one can turn his
horse loose in some rancher's pasture,
and betake himself TO hunting, fish
neghborhood. In the country districts OF Call
fOruia every one you meet is willing TO stop and
chat, tell you about the roads and whittier they
lead, and discuss crops, weather and politics.
The tramp, with his roll OF soiled blankets aud
his stubby pipe held between his teeth. leans up
against the fence and gives you a dose OF pes
siHism; The jocund Young farmer, driving afield
az sunrise, tells you II Is good world TO live in
schOol-children meanderug along the ROAD look
shyly at you and your outfit and then become
InuocenIly garrulous and gossip about their
teacher. their homes and their gardens.
There was once long ago an age OF toll roads
and ferries In California, and if one gets far
enough from the towns the relies OF that time
still exist. Mountain stages still run; gray. old
ba'ges swing across swift mountain rivers as
they did when the country was first settled. One
that remember was out In the broad valley,
ana one April afternoon rode leisurely into the
belt of timber along the river, past edges of
sl0qghs, tall grasses and copses of
IN wa. Gear space esh amOnG me n e9
messy rails and covered by tangled vines, while
past The very door the San Joaquin swirIed and
gufgled. On the opposite shore the ferry-boat
lay at rs moorlngs. and white buildings showed
beyond the ievee; slowly down tue river swept q
Stern Stern. wheeled ed, steamer, towing a wheal;aden
bargemen lay, idly watching the line OF foam,
the green banks. the translucent sky. Then the
ferrynian, an old sailor. withered as April
arpe, put forth from the farther side, and the
eh3ns ratified In the puleys as the current
caught the boat.
l remember another ferry on the swift Mokel-
umue. from one ole mining camp TO another.
where ali the land for miles was succession of
graveEmOunds marking the fierce fight for gold,
where thousands of placer miners had torn at
The thrice-silted channels of ancient rivers
followed the Mokelumne from the valley
passing from farm 10 farm by private roads aud
wiilow-bordered lanes, till the levels grew into
rolling hills and the stormy river ran low in its
banks, Ike hound let loose. There were count
less knobs, blue as tie SKY with closely set
hemophllas, green as winters opalescent
YEA SEA. Win YIN, w, waves OF grass and creamy
There were clumps OF willow, white as IL tufts
OF cotton bad blown over them; there were
brown-budded oaks very laZily awakening and
other oaks already whole bouquets OF dainty and
erimpled leaves. Sometimes rude promontories
tntted sharply into The river and, climbing these,
The picture widens. This Is what L saw one
Maytime noon Underneath, rugged SLOPE
golden with early flowers, and Ihickset with
chaparral and jumpers; low, broad,
rock, lordly pine. iasi-rooted, and
three small streams, glistenng against the
cliff Northwafd the sunlt Mokeumne, walled
In by r. cliffs and the mountains dark be-
yond, shaggy with oaks in the ravines, naked
and purple on the heights. The mountain wall
buttress of gray rock just crumbling into ruins.
In the lett center Is a bit of black fume with
sparkling water bursting from q leak near
miners cabin, where trim little garden slopes
toward the canyon, and The miners wife sits by
the door, with her baby in her arms, looking
down toward the wall oil rock into which her
husband IS slowly tunnelng 20 reach ledge of
gold bearing quartz.
Then come the great mining thOroughfares,
which one follows for miles, as the only way
across tue Sierras. In the valleys the roads in
terrace like the threads of SPIDERS web. In
the mountains the road follows lonely deiiles and
long ridges, past spliniered rocks, past pleasant
pastures, past hooks Of rich land, past cottage
gardens. past miuing villages broodlng of what
has been, past dark and wind-swept forests
Other roads enter this, coming In unexpectedly
when one turns an angle at the base OF some
cliff, or slipping In between the svergray
bushes. Becoming great thoroughfare, this
way. Sometimes ii is upheld by wall
of rock sometimes IL passes torrent-fur-
Towed channels oil stone; sometimes an eddying
current nils the black flume beside, until, for
many minutes, one feels The billOwy rush of Tie
Keen White stream Great wagons, chained in
oX-tealns keep their mnDotODOus way light bug
giles pause half way up the Icing grades; at long
Intervals groups of horseback travellers 20 by
with the short tIot of the mountaineer. One
passes fuiued mills with black timber fallen
across the stream. Under closely woven
tain springs The white ceanotbus makes
whole miles fragrant and with 1t Is mingled the
large While flower OF the dogwoOd and wild
aZalea. at last one comes TO The old reservoirs
of the hydraulic mines. One of these covers $50
acres; will hold 100000 900 cubic feet of water;
is $3.50 feet above lie sea level, and the dam
which retains II is ninety-siX feet high, built OF
granite blocks. Legislation against hydraulic
mining has caused many OF the old bitches TO be
neglected, but the immense water supply OF the
mountains Is becoming OF priceless value for
irrigation, and the horticulture of the foothills
begins already 10 rebuild the ancient business
interests 0f this wonderful region. C. H. s.