The record-union., 1892-05-16
PASSING THE GAP"
Delightful Trip From San Jose to San
Luis 0bispo.
Remarkable Scenery on the Coast Line
of the southern Pacific
Railroad.

of the southern Pacific
Railroad.
Especial Correspondence RECoRD-UNIoN.I
PAso RoBLEs, May 13.-A trip full of
interest and enjoyment, especially in the
early Maytime of growing grain and
still blossoming fields and hillsides, is
that which leads down into Southern
Central California by way of the .coast
line of the Southern Pacific through the
valley of the Salinas.
Not so vast valley, this one, as its big
neighbor across the Coast Range, the San
Joaquin; not so vast and far less populous
and productive. Yet it winds and broadens
between the Coast Range and the Santa
Lucia Mountains with a charm of its
own, with many little cities and villages
strung along the thread of the Salinas
River and with a present fruitfulness and
future promise which make it as dear to
its jewellers as any Of the California val
leys.
Leaving San Jose the infinite variety of
dips, spurs and angles which the coast
line railway makes, i'll its laudable effort
TO reach and develop the scores of neigh
borhoods which lie waiting for it, make q
study Of the folder and map. where it's
course lies, printed in red ink, not unin-
tereStng even to the veteran traveller, and
quite necessity to the tourist with linn
tied time who has set his face toward
Santa Margarita, 1.-THE gap,' and san Luis
ObiSpO, and doesn't wish to be Seduced
from that determination even by the at
fractions Of Monterey, Santa Cruz, New
limo inn IN1l 1Stn fn-
each of which places the brakeman bawls
| the most beWildering special directions.
| But once past CaStroville, where for four
! bits you are dined and wined-the latter
with small BOTTLE" each of I'm dlt pays,
''no extra charge''-and the most ignor-
| ant or careless wanderer is safe until he
| brings up at Santa Margarita, with no
| more rails to travel on.
All through southern Santa Clara Val
| ley and northern Salinas the picturesque
| oak openings, with which Sacramento
| Valley people are so familiar, prevail.
The trees are mainly white oaks, tall,
| graceful and moss-draped, and the natural
parks beneath them are SO clean of under
growth and, just now, so beautifully
| green that you can't get rid of the idea
| that they are wholly artificial, that the
| gardener and his men have just left with
their rakes and wheelbarroWs, and that
presently you will see dashing four-in-
! lowed by a procession of stylish equip
ages, la Golden Gate.
The valley WidenS and pillows with
! grain. the oaks retire toward the foothills,
and, by and by, you have entered the
great Gonzales ranch with its unbroken
miles Of emerald, curving and dipping in
the sunshine, from the Coast Range to the
Santa Lucia, and almost from Chualar to
! Soledad, embracing the little village of
Gonzales, as a sort of capital to this re-
publican brincipality ofbreadstutfs.
But once you leave its confines the
spell is broken, and, almost with shock,
you glide from California May to a
! California August, and the salinas
Plains are before you and all around
ryou. 1t is early afternoon, and, in the
ardent sunshine, the gaSping acres, from
the Santa Lucia to the Coast Range,
simmer in the glowing heat. The green
is fred to pale and liteless yellow, as
if an artist in porcelain had used the
wrong tints before sending his work to
the kiln. Truly, it seems as if God had
| forgotten the world'' just here, for, since
| 1877, 50 that traditional early settler who
! boards every railway train tells you,
there has been no such dry year." The
| late May rains were too late for the lands
salvation, and, with a terrible irony, they
came so unkindly cold, that on the
/ range" they left broad and cleaning
| track of snow. Back and forth across the
weary valley, between Soledad and San
| Miguel, curves the broad, desolate, sandy
bed of the Salinas, with its trIckling
! thread of silver losing itself in the shall
| lows and quicksand.
Says the old settler, 1.-THE Salinas is
| really noble river; it was built for one,
| but, unfortunately, it is wrong side up.
The sand is all on top and the water is
underneath, for the most casual expert
ment will show you that the subterranean
,-ix full
| underground to 10 any real good"
At Soledad it is announced that you can
! take stage coach for "Paraiso Springs
that pretty and health-giving resort
nestled eight miles away, over on the
landward side of the Santa Lucia. In
fact, at most of the stations along here
you may take the stage for some more or
less charming little mountain nook. in
accessible before the advent Of the iron
rails.
At San Miguel there is mission partly
preserved and somewhat restored, with
its row OF adobe, where barefooted native
| Californian babies live and sun them
selves and with several acres of uninter-
esting ruins.
At Paso Robes, 4:30 IP. NJ, the tempta-
ton to see the baths and the new hotel is
too great, and you stop Oft for night and
a day, despite the ironclad timetable
against which you are travelling. 1t is
! all yer y IONelys " cry IeSIlll, lllOSG dlluf-
! ing, and exceedingly promising, for the
sum- baked plains have disappeared, and
| the country has narrowed down into this
| picturesque and historical "Pass of the
| Oaks" and, whereas, the Salinas Plains
| Will not yield this year even Il mOdicum
Of feed for the cattle. hereabouts there
will be part of crop, and things still
wear a May aspect. The nne hotel, fin
ished last year, looks out over a thriving
aud very picturesque village of 800 peo-
pie, every house, outside oil the old hotel
square, having been built in the last five
years, or, as faso Roblesians say, "Since
| the railroad"
That the mud and mineral baths are
good, there are thousands TO testify As
| for me, the present chTonicler, when at
| the urgent request OF the card perched
upon my chamber door, | consult the
| resident physician. he looks 1T me with
| lll-repreSsed wonder at my healthful ap-
! pearance, and respectfully inquiries what
seems 10 be the matter. When / hesitat-
ingly reply that really don't know, I'M
less L am threatened with constitutional
| inactivity, he laughs heartily, and recon-
mends me to walk it Off, and leave the
| baths to the rheumatics and the nervously
! Frustrated, who find them so good-and
do.
one of these recommended journeys
is mile and bali over the hills. on the
western bank Of the Salinas. to the Gov
/ eminent Experiment Station, in charge
of X. d. Crulckshank. This is one of
! Ave IN the State-the parent at the State
| University. Berkeley; one at Jackson
Anador County; one at Tulare and one
here. This consists OF twenty acres of
plateau land, under the average of fer
tllity, where, in the pastoral days of Cali
fornla, great herds grazed under the oaks