The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1913-06-12
HE Coast Range eliminates in
the peaks of San Gorgonio and
San Bernardino of the San
B~ernardino mountains, with
Con Antonio opd Con Ioninto

San Antonio and San Jacinto
only a little lower on either side.
Then the range makes a decided drop
to the south and shows heights Of
quite a different character, with blunt
tops instead of sharp peaks. Palomar
and Cajon mountains are bold and
conspicuous but not high, as noun
tains on the coast go. Still farther
south, however, in the peninsula OF
Lower California. the range makes In
other lunge upward and produces the
great San Pedro Martir mountain,
more than nine thousand feet high.
That is it's last great effort, for in it's
more southern reaches it is much
broken, with plenty of peaks, to be
sure, but no high mes.
While some of the mountains of the
upper part of the range are higher
than San Pedro Martir, none other
presents SO huge a bulk. Seen from
San Telmo, it is an unbroken wall
forty or fifty miles long, which at the
north end is first cut down sharply
and then beyond is almost completely
demolished, as mountains rank; and at
the south end is torn into gaps and
has had its crest knocked off.
There are two picachos, sharp,
needlelike, of pure white granite, but
they are SO near the eastern side of
the mountain that they cannot be seen
at all from the west, and not from the
south till one has reached San Juan
De Dios, then they appear pointing
heavenward, shining white like great
icebergs.
Almost Perpendicular.
The western side of the mountain is
abrupt, with very few places where it
may be climbed, but the eastern side
is still more so and makes an almost
perpendicular drop to the desert. On
that side one may descend, in scarcely
more than an hours time, from snow
and freezing temperature to a spot
where the SUI is warm and birds are
nesting. And then from beneath the
feathery crowns of tropical palms he
may look back to where, almost di-
rectly overhead, stand the rugged
pines ne mas Just lett.
1t Is miles across the top from east
to west, and with its great length the
dimensions of the mountain are such
as to almost entitle it to be called
a high t%ableland, with hills and valleys
and streams of It's own. AS it is high
enough to catch winter SHOWS and
summer rains, the p~asturage on the
top is always good, and when the low
er lands between the mountain and
the Pacific are parched with drought
here is a haven for starving herds.
They come from as far away as San
Juan De Dios and grow fat on the
sweet grasses and the delightfully."-
cool GUNNER air. When winter grips
the mountain, however, the herds
must descend, for then the climate is
icient shelter.
The cattle and horses are not the
only ones that grow fat from a sum-
mer residence on San Pedro; the herd
ers also are in clover, for the great
forests are the home Of innumerable
uCCis anu Ol6nOih 90 We'll, luOuSu uOt
In SO great numbers as the deer. Two
Mexican friends of mine who were
tending a herd Of cattle on the sum-
NIT, in two weeks shot fifty deer and
might easily have shot more. but they
could not take II of and transport
any more jerked meat.
Another man had q standing offer
from a San Francisco firm Of $25 for
every head of a male bighorn, and he
shipped a good many. That traffic Of
course was stopped when Mexican law
declared a closed season for mountain
sheep. 1t was high time, too, for they
were wantonly destroyed. sometimes
not even for their heads and skins,
but merely for the pleasure OF slaugh-
ter. ! think II American nimrods had
understood how easily those marvel
GUS hunting grounds might be reached
by boat to San Quintin, where an EN-
cisrt Mexican guide With excellent
saddle and pack mules vas to be pro