shifting ground in
which it grew, and gathered from all its hopelessness of surroundings,
a vigorous life, much of tender beauty, and a fragrance which was
refreshing. Nature always shows us how to make the best possible use of
any environment whatever. Here, in sands which shifted, amid storms
which blew, in utter humility and loneliness, the flower developed
firmness, beauty, and fragrance, and gave evidence of constant vigor
and of useful life.

We had two full, glorious days at Del Monte, and they were hours of
utter enjoyment. The hotel and its well-kept and extensive grounds were
enough for a week, at the least, of intense pleasure. The site is a
promontory of sand dunes, covered with pine and other native forest
trees. The surrounding waters, the yellow sands, the clear, delicious
air, the equable climate, the illimitable ocean--these were the raw
material for the exquisite result, which one sees at Del Monte.

In the immediate neighborhood of the hotel the landscape gardener has
done his best. There, one hundred sixty acres of well-kept grounds
feast the eye. Irrigation brings the life-giving current to the sandy
soil, and, while we look almost, the turf is green and velvety, the
flowers bloom, and the fruits appear.

Nothing can be more bewitching than the winding drives to the hotel.
Great forest glades intercept the view, and give impression of still
greater distance; or, a vista opens before one, and the huge pines
tower up, their naked trunks wreathed closely to their topmost
branches, with ivy and other creeping plants.

Wherever one looks there is evidence of intelligent care. One sees it
in the rich flower-beds, models of good taste; in the arboretum; in the
cactus garden; in the Maze; in the unexpected groups of cultivated
plants, where the enclosed garden joins on to the outlying wild. And,
in this wild itself, what beauty does one find! The great ocean, the
cliffs, the sea-lions, the Chinese shell-gatherers; the winding drive
of eighteen miles, by ocean, through rich land, and through the
wild-wood, winding back again to the hotel, and all its graceful beauty
and luxury. The place has all the sumptuousness of an English ducal
palace standing on its ancestral grounds, with the added charm here, of
space, and vastness, and that the whole place belongs to every eye
which sees it--that is, if the hand can dip into the pocket and pay the
necessary bills. But even without this, it does seem to belong t