rfumes of the semi-arid lands. The air was
tepid; the sun hot. A sing-song of bees and locusts and strange insects
lulled the mind. The ponies plodded on cheerfully. We expanded and
basked and slung our legs over the pommels of our saddles and were glad
we had come.

At no time did we seem to be climbing mountains. Rather we wound in and
out, round and about, through a labyrinth of valleys and canons and
ravines, farther and farther into a mysterious shut-in country that
seemed to have no end. Once in a while, to be sure, we zigzagged up a
trifling ascent; but it was nothing. And then at a certain point the
Tenderfoot happened to look back.

"Well!" he gasped; "will you look at that!"

We turned. Through a long straight aisle which chance had placed just
there, we saw far in the distance a sheer slate-colored wall; and
beyond, still farther in the distance, overtopping the slate-colored
wall by a narrow strip, another wall of light azure blue.

"It's our mountains," said Wes, "and that blue ridge is the channel
islands. We've got up higher than our range."

We looked about us, and tried to realize that we were actually more
than halfway up the formidable ridge we had so often speculated on from
the Cold Spring Trail. But it was impossible. In a few moments,
however, our broad easy canon narrowed. Huge crags and sheer masses of
rock hemmed us in. The chaparral and yucca and yerba buena gave place
to pine-trees and mountain oaks, with little close clumps of
cottonwoods in the stream bottom. The brook narrowed and leaped, and
the white of alkali faded from its banks. We began to climb in good
earnest, pausing often for breath. The view opened. We looked back on
whence we had come, and saw again, from the reverse, the forty miles of
ranges and valleys we had viewed from the Ridge Trail.

At this point we stopped to shoot a rattlesnake. Dinkey and Jenny took
the opportunity to push ahead. From time to time we would catch sight
of them traveling earnestly on, following the trail accurately,
stopping at stated intervals to rest, doing their work, conducting
themselves as decorously as though drivers had stood over them with
blacksnake whips. We tried a little to catch up.

"Never mind," said Wes, "they've been over this trail before. They'll
stop when they get to where we're going to camp."

We halted a moment on the ridge to look back over the lesser mountains
and the distant ridge, beyond which the is