one of the late-summer feeding-grounds of the ouzel
ouzel entering A white current
the ouzel at home
yosemite birds, snow-bound at the foot of Indian canon
snow-bound on Mount Shasta
head of the Merino ram
head of rocky mountain wild sheep
crossing A canon stream
wild sheep jumping over A precipice
Indians hunting wild sheep
A bee-ranch in lower California
wild bee garden
in the San Gabriel valley.—­White sage
A bee-ranch on A spur of the San Gabriel range.—­Cardinal flower
wild buckwheat.—­A bee-ranch in the wilderness
A bee-pasture on the moraine desert.—­Spanish bayonet
A bee-KEEPER’S cabin

CHAPTER I

THE SIERRA NEVADA

Go where you may within the bounds of California, mountains are ever in sight, charming and glorifying every landscape.  Yet so simple and massive is the topography of the State in general views, that the main central portion displays only one valley, and two chains of mountains which seem almost perfectly regular in trend and height:  the Coast Range on the west side, the Sierra Nevada on the east.  These two ranges coming together in curves on the north and south inclose a magnificent basin, with a level floor more than 400 miles long, and from 35 to 60 miles wide.  This is the grand Central Valley of California, the waters of which have only one outlet to the sea through the Golden Gate.  But with this general simplicity of features there is great complexity of hidden detail.  The Coast Range, rising as a grand green barrier against the ocean, from 2000 to 8000 feet high, is composed of innumerable forest-crowned spurs, ridges, and rolling hill-waves which inclose a multitude of smaller valleys; some looking out through long, forest-lined vistas to the sea; others, with but few trees, to the Central Valley; while a thousand others yet smaller are embosomed and concealed in mild, round-browed hills, each, with its own climate, soil, and productions.