Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/183

 BAY AND UPPER COAST COUNTIES 149 Burbank has married the plum to the apricot, divorced the corn from its cob and the melon from its seed, has deprived the potato of its eyes, changed the complexion of the blackberry. For him the field marguerite has broadened its span, and tripled and blanched to a more immaculate white its petals. The fadeless Australian star flower, born of his genius never to die, is comparable to the imperish- able fame of the Conjurer of Santa Rosa. Immense hop ranches extend for miles about Ful- ton. In September they give work to regiments of pickers who live in tents. At night, when the drying-houses overflow with the silver-green cones, men and maidens dance beneath the starred sky. The beginning and end of the season are marked by festivities in which all the countryside joins. Between Guerneville and Monte Rio (going west on the Northwestern Pacific), the Russian River, the Slavianka of early settlers, and the majestic redwoods appear in ro- bust beauty to vary the scene. A grove beyond Guerne- ville was chosen by the Bohemian Club for their Camp Va- cation. Near the space set apart for masques and wood- land rites is the heroic figure of an Indian executed by Robert Aitkin, one of the best of California's sculptors. He is also the author of the McKinley memorial in Golden Gate Park and of the ornate monument which is to be the Bohemian club's tribute to Bret Harte. The region hereabouts and below Monte Rio near the coast is thickly populated by holiday-makers in the summer- time. Fort Ross, north of the outlet of the Russian River, is