The Newtown bee., 1904-04-22
LOCAL AFFAIRS.

LONAI AFFAlKSs
 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
 AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF AN
 ESTEEMED VIEWPOINT CITIZEN.
 Southern California,
 April 4, 1904.
 Yesterday was an ideal day. That means clear, with the maximum tem- perature of seventy-nine degrees, and southwest breeze. Of course we were glad, for picnic party had been ar ranged for, on the previous day, and we were to be ready for the start at 8.3O sharp. The objective point was to be Oak glen up in the Potato can yOn at the foot of San BernardinO mountain. The outfit was on time to the dot, as was the party, and we were duly distributed. One rig was a six scatter, four horse taliy-ho, carrying fifteen persons, two horse rig carry ing four, and two one horse rigs, each carrying two, making twenty-three in dD. Vc WcIC Un LII oCuCuuiO UiH1O, your correspondent on the seat with mile drive, and in that distance we were to ascend three thousand feet, the last two miles on grade of thous- and feet to the mile. We were five and one-half hours going up, and two hours and one-half on the return trip. Thirteen states were represented in our crowd. Six from New York, four from Wisconsin, two from Minnesota, two from Connecticut, one from Yer mont, one from Massachusetts, one from Rhode Island, one from New Hampshire, one from Indiana, one from Illinois, one from Germany, one from Pennsylvania, and one from Iowa. Ladies were in the majority. Our drive took us through the Uncipe val ley, that lies between two great ranges of mountains, a delightfully."- interest ing strip of country, with great diver sity of soil, surface and productions. It is from this valley the people of RedIands are supplied with fine garden vegetables in the order of their coming. There IS large, level tract of a thOus- and acres or more, once river bottom of the richest soil, twelve feet deep, that is under the irrigation system and extensive cultivation. It 1t cared IOI Uy CuluCSc, WuO lCuU lU HULL O14C owners of a 2,8OO acre ranch. They run wagons through the city every day save Sunday, and sell at very reason able prices. This Uncipe valley that we traversed, is not all in touch with the eirrigation system, because the work is not yet complete, and for that rea- son is all the more interesting, for where the water has not yet been turned on, the land is baked hard and almost barren, and we occasionally pass tracts where there is evidence of claims having been taken up, and af- terward abandoned, as worthless. A tumble down shack will be left, and perhaps few dead trees to mark the spot, where some prOSpectOr drove his first stake for his future home, only to leave it in bitter disappointment. We drove through one ranch where dairy of two hundred COWS were being herd ed, a cowboy mounted on his horse, was moving back and forth on the mountain side to keep the COWS from straying off too far, as well as to keep them on the best pasturage. Of course the faithful collie dog was close along side. Of many interesting happeD ings on the way, we will mention few. In many places our drive ran alongside the foot hills, where the road was so narrow that if team was coming from the opposite direction it was necessary to do lots of schemlng in order to pass, and occasionally the outer wheels would go so near the edge as to make one Shudder lest we go down into the depths, a mangled mass. On the barren wastes we crossed were acres covered with prickly pear, cactus, sage brush, grease wood and many other growths unknown to the writer, but in spite of all the dreari- ness of it, there were many forms of animal life, exceedingly interesting.
 The tarantula, large poison ous spider, the gopher, an an- imal large as gray squirrel, :, sitting by his hole only to pop out of sight whenever anyone came too near, the rattlesnake, which we failed to catch, the cotton-tail rabbit, so called for his short tail that looks like ball of cotton, the jack rabbit, a larger and more lively animal than the cotton-tail, but not as good for eating, the horned toad, that lives on the desert and grows happier as the heat increases, and species of lizard that drags his weary length over the sand only to slink away in some cleft in the baked earth. The driver once pointed off to a white moving animal in the distance he called polar bear but we thought the climate too hot for one, and we had also seen too many hogs Tn l our lives to believe him, however much we might have been glad to do so. The wild flowers along the way were very interesting. The California poppy in it's gorgeous golden colors was the most beautiful. They are cultivated in oul gardens at home, and we call then beautiful, but one needs to see then in their home, blinking under trop' ical sun, to see them in their richness
 We gathered quantities of them on oul way. Then there were the little yell
 low primroses, the forget-me-nOtS, the lupines, a beautiful spike-like lavende
 colored tufted flower, baby-blue-eyes and other dainty flowers with name
 unknown to me- but so dainty, ant delicately hidden, in out of the wa.
 places, that never before did thi couplet come so forcibly to mind:
 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
 And waste it's sweetness on the desert air"
 Of all the birds we saw, the notes 0
 the mocking bird and meadow lar
 were the sweetest. The mOcking bir'
 is about the size of the cat bird wit us, and the meadow lark is the sam as ours. l have not yet seen the crow
 what larger than the crow and
 natural scavenger, several smalle
 species of birds not familiar to me, an
 whose instinct leads them to adap
 themselves to the climate and to pro
 tect themselves from the depreciation
 of foes peculiar to this climate an
 country. For instance, noticed quit frequently when passing large spread ] ing cactus plants on the range, plan