human habitation
behind; and soon even fences disappeared, except about the coach
company's ranches, where we stopped to change horses, in groves of sugar
pine and yellow pine trees of great size and beauty. Here we were
literally surrounded by Nature, which some quaint writer denominates
God's Old Testament.

An austere and almost mournful air of loneliness surrounded us, as we
crept higher and higher towards that ethereal blue canopy which hung
over the loftiest peaks. All was silence save the rumbling noise of our
conveyance; and when, as was the case at a sudden angle of the winding
road, a large black bear was seen coolly sitting on his haunches, with
listless hanging paws, looking at the stage and its contents, it did not
seem at all strange, but quite in keeping with the solitary
surroundings, though some of our horses did exhibit a little
restlessness. The pistol-like crack of the driver's whip was an
intimation to Bruin which he understood, for he slowly dropped into the
thick brush and rolled awkwardly away from the roadside. The eye was
never weary in detecting the natural architecture of the mountain
acclivities, which, in the constantly varying scenery, formed
amphitheatres like old Roman circuses, and now square battlemented
crags, like crumbling castles on the Rhine, and again a deep, shady
ravine of unknown depth, where lonely mist-wreaths rested like
snowdrifts. In the far background were cliffs like oriental minarets,
and balled rocks capped like the dome of St. Peter's.

There were often seen nestling beside the road, struggling for a
precarious existence, frail wild flowers of delicate shades, surrounded
by vigorous ferns and creeping vines, showing that Nature has her poetic
moods even among these deserted regions. Now we came upon a crystal
stream of water, winding and fretting over a narrow bed of rocks on the
mountain side, sparkling in the sunshine, as it formed tiny cascades,
until presently it lost itself by an artificial culvert under the
roadway; but even then it could be heard leaping and tumbling down the
deep abyss on the other side. The horses were familiar with the road,
and had confidence in the stout hand that guided them, or they would not
have gone on at such a quiet, unconcerned, uniform gait, close beside
abrupt gorges that would have destroyed us all as instantly as a stroke
of lightning, were the wheels to diverge but a few inches from the
track.

It was interesting to obser