Geographical memoir upon upper California : in illustration of his map of Oregon and California

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[ 23] 22 cacti are so numerous that one is obliged to thread his path amongst them withb infinite cahr.e. . we were surrounded by flocks of 15 -T Is mornmg . · h h Septem er . . 1 h min led most socially wit t e com-mgoolnd ecno·wh eba~?redd, atrno dopa~ ~ m~' wgr e~"t gle~ were catching grass-hoppers in · · 't four "mulada . the VICini Y 0 • I d · back a short distance to examine a ~~~:ica~:ke'i~:t:ns~;etc~0ede nearly ea~t and west across the valle.~ ovon the nort h SI· d e o f the stream.' havmg collected a-s ma.n y spec1 I t d I crossed the Purgatory. · . meWns as wan eon every side a beautiful plant covered With dark ar1ee t nfoloww searsw a spec·i es of (nyctagm. ea oxy b ap h us. ) Th'I S p I an t ~c of the ~ost beautiful that we had seen. Is A~ewe moved up the valley we found the hills composed of · rounded pebble stones, and huge pieces of dark purple rock, that froin. its. vesicularity and general character we knew to be vol-caA~ ter a march of six miles, we encamped by the side of the Pur-atory again, and at the foot of a stupendous mas~ of rocks, ~hose flat fo s cut into giant steps are thus connect~d With the lo" er levels . olthe ridge. What a field for the geologist; what pleasure would he have with the rocks piled about and strewed aro~nd us. I could not but compare the legends these rocks unfold with the doub~ful records of history. See with what detail they prese~t everythmg to us showing us specimens of birds, of plants, of antmals and the like, telling us when and where they e.xisted. See ho.w they go ba~k ages upon ages! behold with astomshment the mi.ghty deeds m which they hav~ been concerned, the grand conYulswns they have undergone. Septembe1· 16.-When we got ready for our march, we found that the ox teams had startE>d long before us, but we had not pro­ceeded more than three miles through the forests of cedar and pinon, or nut pine, when we encountered the wagons. One of them had upset, and the traders' goods ~ay stre~ed along the. bot­tom and sides of a deep ravine. As I did not Wish t() be detamed, as our little party could not be of any ser~'ice, I reque.sted Mr. St. Vrain to have the second wagon turned a httle to one side, so that I might pass. He drew his wagon out of the way, but as soon as the oxen were loosed, the wagon loaded with the immense bulk of fifty-seven hundred weight of goods, rushed backwards down the hill; luckily it turned off the road, when after crushing a few trees in its course, it brought up against a sturdy pine. I was. at the time riding round the wagon and just escaped. The foolish driver had chocked the wheels with a piece of decayed wood. . A few miles beyond the scene of.this accident we noticed a high bluff bank, where there were evident signs of coal. I rode over and collected some ~pecimens of fine bituminous coal, and on searching for fossils, found two varieties of dicotyledonus plants; of one sort, the large and cordate resembling the leaves of the catalpa, of the other lanceola.te, and not unlike the willow leaves; both sorts had the veins arranged in pairs, and edges entire. 23 [ 23] Two miles beyond this pseudo coal formation we noticed a dike of volcanic rock that runs parallel with the stream, is six feet in thickness, and is composed of various colored rock-scoriaceous in appearance. Near this plaGe we found some of the mossy cup oak, ( Q. oli vreformis.) Turkeys are very abundant, also the red shafted flickers and steuer's jay. The beautiful tunne I of dense foliage that we passed through last year, now looks sad indeed; our horses feet do not now splash in the cool water, an.d the once variegated pebbles are white with dry­ness ·. The former beautiful foliage of the willows that met over ou!' heads, now appears yelJow, and the leaves hang as if wilted by fire .. Here an~ there so.me aquatic plants, hid in deep no?ks, still retam somethmg of theu freshness. In one place we noticed a fine grove of spruce, (abies alba,) and passed several clusters of mossy cup oaks. September 17.-We got over the rugged acclivities and declivi­ties of the Raton so expeditiously, that we left our fellow travellers far behind. The road we travelled OYer yesterday was indeed ter­rible. I had wished to camp near the scene of the upset, but there was. no water to be had until we reached the foot of the " divide" that separates the waters of the Purgatory, running north, from those of the "Rio Canadiano," running south. I was, therefore, ob­liged to march to this place, which is 16 miles from our last camp­ing ground. The mountain sides and ravines were covered with grass that is called by the traders "grama," a Spanish term, whic~, although it means grass of any kind, is here restricted to a parti­cular kind, (athereopogon oligostachium.) This grass seems. to prefer a hilly country, is very hardy, and animals seem to thnve well upon it, a I though they do not like it at .first. . . I fo.und to-day a species of cactus near "mamalana," the fruit ~as pyriform, one inch long, and contained small round ~eeds of a. hght brown color, and was juicy and well flavored. In the waters of the stream we found specimens of the "ranunculus aquitalis," also the "symphoricaspus glomeratis," and close to the water's edge a species of "angelica." In the afternoon Mr. Nourse and Pilka went out to hunt turkeys and deer; of the latter there are two varieties, the common deer, and the black tail, ( cervus macro tis.) They did not. g~t any, but brought some beautiful specimens of the scarlet gdha, (cantua longiflora,) and the blue larkspur, ( delpbinum azureum.) . . The country around us bears strong evidences of volca.mc actwn; t~e tops of the high bluffs are level, and present at theu outcrop­pings a columnar structure. There are large masses and boulders mof osucnotariinacs.e ous rock scattered about through the gorges of thQ . The song of the ·blue bird, (siaJia Wilsonii,) from his airy flight In the clouds, teJJs the approaching cold weather, ~he robu~ now find the cedar berries ripe and sits in the dense fohage calhng to his companions to come a~d feast on the fruit that the frost has so delightfully sweetened for them.