Page:Condor6(6).djvu/25

 x66 THE CONDOR VoL. VI it runs the county road and also, in winter, the flood waters of what we are pleased to call the Escondido River. The canyon is of varying width, in places narrowing down to leave barely room for river and road, and then opens out into pretty bits of pasture with groves about 200 yards. are two nests. of live oak, a few small sycamore saplings, and scattered willows along the rocky fiver bed. In places the river bed it- self is almost obscured by tall brush. The hills on either side are high and steep, and are cov- ered with sage, wild lilac, and grease-wood, with occasional clumps of manzanita, very dense and high on the unex- posed slopes. Huge rock piles are found here and there, and enormous boulders rise above the brush, beconfing near the summit abrupt ledges of varying height. On one of these ledges, which appears from the road, 2oo feet below, to be two or three boulders piled on top of each other, in a corner formed by natural cleavage of the rock, is an old eagle's nest that was last occu- pied in 897, when two young birds were taken from it. A few hundred yards below, an immense ledge, forming the whole face of the hill. rises above the brush and trees at about 5 o feet above the river, extend- ing upwards for perhaps an equal distance as smooth rock-faces, jut- ting boulders, and moss- covered terraces, with an extreme length of On the lower part of this, and about fifty feet from the bottom, One of these nests is above and a little to the left of the other,