The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-28

fornia outdoor life. South are the low.
purple hills, treeless, desolate, sharply out
lined against the sky. Beyond them, to-
Ward the southeast rises the greater wilder
ness, snow-capped, forest-clad, of the Gov
ernna ent reservation, and the sources of
the Water supply of San Ga briel, the Chino
Nal1ey and many OF the most marvellous
districts OF Southern California. Eastward
the broad valley-plain, rising a little, then
sinking away again, opens at last into the
MolaVe and the Colorado, and becomes
more and more barren, desolate and ter
rible, Across it the yucca forests exte nd
IN belts, far more picturesque as one jour
neys through them than when seen from
the car windows. In these April DAYS the
yucca trees are heavy with bloom-masses
that weigh ten and twenty pounds, green
lsil-white flowers, tainted with sickening
Sweetness.
The beautiful Yucca Whippleyi and Yucca
baccata, so often seen on the desert hill
side, have a charming fragrance, but the
giant yucca is very different. Useless for
timber or fuel, except as the trunks fall to
the ground, are covered with hot sand,
and slowly baked and compressed into an
almost petrified condition, the giant yucca
seems to be hated by every pioneer but
when they have all disappeared one of the
charms of the valley win be gone. Seen in
great masses at twilight or sunrise they
tropic appearance. Perhaps the desert
palm will some time be planted here in a
small way, but the yucca forests are al
ready palm-like in their dignity and
artistic strength.
Northward, along the rim of the valley,
twenty miles away, another range of pur-
pie hills rises into the Tehachapi Noun
tains. If one turns west the mountain
walls converge to the winding pass of the
TETON. Lonely, desolate, unpeopled, as
this mountain plain appears, it is GER
tainly the railroad gateway for an i'm
mense territory, and the strategic point
where armies, in case of future war, would
maneuver for the control of Northern or OF
Southern California.
The rainfall of Antelope Valley averages
from three to eight inches-not sufficient
to insure crop except under peculiar con-
ditions. Along the southern side of the
valley, near the foothills and extending
into the mountains, where the rainfall is
greater, wheat belt of 10000 acres usually
gives profitable returns. The quality of
the wheat is unsurpassed for milling pur-
poses. A great deal of it is hauled out
through TETON Pass and marketed at Ba-
kersfield. 1t is thought that f1ourmill to
supply local consumption will soon be
built in the valley.
The irrigation districts, present and po-
tential, all lie along the foothills West
district-rather dismal name, for the sink
of the Amargosa is one of the most barren
spots on the American continent Eight
or ten miles further west lies the famous
Elizabeth Lake, a favorite camping ground
of Tiburcio Vasquez, the Spanish bandit.
Harry Morse and his men when pursuing
Vasquez twice visited this little mountain
lake, which is a mile and half long and
about a mile wide. 1t is now proposed to
tunnel under the mountain rim and use
the lake, which is fed by springs, as the
source of supply for another irrigation dis
trict.
Still further west and northwest Kings
Canyon and Lake Katrina furnish water
for the land of the Manzana colony, the
Almendro colony and the Fruit-Growers'
Society, about seven sections.
At the extreme west much more extern
sive irrigation scheme, known as the An
telope Valley Company, under the auspices
of some of the large owners in the Santa
Fe Railroad, is based upon the use of an
other old lake basin. and the accumulation
of winter waters from two large mountain
valleys. The significance of this enterprise
les In the fact that its projectors have