the fauna of the ocean, and,
without question, the most fascinating of them all is the octopus.
Timid, constantly changing color, hideous to a degree, having a
peculiarly devilish expression, it is well named the _Mephistopheles
of the Sea_, and with the bill of a parrot, the power to adapt its
color to almost any rock, and to throw out a cloud of smoke or ink, it
well deserves the terror it arouses. The average specimen is about two
feet across, but I have seen individuals fourteen feet in radial
spread, and larger ones have been taken in deep water off shore.

CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER,
in _The Glass Bottom Boat._

MAY 5.

A SIERRA STORM FROM A TREE TOP.

Being accustomed to climb trees in making botanical studies, I
experienced no difficulty in reaching the top of this one (a pine
about 100 feet high), and never before did I enjoy so noble an
exhilaration of motion. The slender tops fairly flapped and swished in
the passionate torrent, bending and swirling backward and forward,
round and round, tracing indescribable combinations of vertical and
horizontal curves, while I clung with muscles firm braced, like a
bobolink on a reed.

JOHN MUIR,
in _The Mountains of California._

MAY 6.

There is a breeziness, a spaciousness, an undefiled ecstasy of purity
about the High Sierras. Nature, yet untainted by man, has expressed
herself largely in mighty pine-clad, snow-topped blue mountains, and
rolling stretches of foot-hills; in rivers whose clarity is as perfect
as the first snow-formed drops that heralded them; and a sky of chaste
and limpid blue, pale as with awe of the celestial wonders it has
gazed upon. But there is an effect of simplicity with it all, an
omission of sensational landscape contrasts.

MIRIAM MICHELSON,
in _Anthony Overman._

The ocean is a great home. Its waters are full of life. The rocks
along its shores are thickly set with living things; the mud and sand
of its bays are pierced with innumerable burrows, and even the abyss
of the deep sea has its curious inhabitants.

JOSIAH KEEP,
in _West Coast Shells._

MAY 7.

THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD.
(IN CALIFORNIA.)

It was folded, away from strife,
In the beautiful pastoral hills;
And the mountain peaks kept watch and ward
O'er the peace that the valley fills--
Kept watch and ward lest the bold world pass
The fair green rampart of hills.

* * * * *

The rains of