Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/17



m  THE    COAST   RANGE. 5

sightly skeleton. Many of  these  foundation-hills,  and particularly the  little  valleys  between  them  were  fin- ished in her  happiest  mood. Many of  these  cinders of spent  forces  have  been  well  fleshed  with  soil,  w^ell watered, made  fragrant  with  gums  and  odorous  plants, and toned  in  healthy  glistening  green.

But it  is  down  into  the  valleys  that  you  must  go, into the  valleys  of  the  Coast  Range,  and  that  too  be- fore man has  mutilated  everything,  if  you  would  see what nature  has  done  for  this  strip  of  seaboard. There are natural  meadows  arabesque  with  tawny  wild-oats, blossoming pea,  and  golden  mustard,  interspersed with indigenous  vineyards,  and  fruit-bearing  thickets. There are  flower-gardens  laid  out  in  patterns  by  the deft fingers  of  nature,  stars  and  crowns  and  chaplets of yellow,  purple,  white,  and  red. Scattered over broad park-like  plains,  and  rising  from  tall  wavy  grass are oaks  of  various  forms  and  species,  some  high  with broad branches,  and  many  scraggy  and  storm-bent. Here and  there  trees  cluster  in  groves,  and  clumps  of under-growth  gather  round  to  keep  them  company. Rising from  the  broad  plain  are  solitary  buttes,  w^ith cloud-entangling crests,  sharp  and  high;  and  all around the  borders  bluff  promontories,  and  tongues  of uplifted  land  timbered  with  beech  and  birch,  ash, myrtle, and  laurel,  shoot  out  into  the  valley,  some- times sudsiding in  small  round  hills  covered  with tulips, wild  onions,  hemp,  flax,  and  prickly  chaparral. Now bring  down  through  rocky  canons  the  clear dancing water;  lead  it  round  in  winding  courses v/here it  will  best  moisten  the  surface,  broadening  it occasionally  mto  lakes,  locking  it  in  lagoons,  or  leav- intj it  in  slug^o-ish  slouo-hs;  then  go  out  while  the morning is  fresh  and  gray,  just  as  the  sun  begins  to pour  a  sensuous  warmth  into  the  air,  to  refine  the mists and  give  lustre  to  the  foliage,  and  to  set  life glowing under  a  blue  and  purple  haze,  and  if  the  e^^es shine not  with  gladness,   and  the  breast  swells   not