Several of these incursions occurred while we
were at Helvetia. Occasionally parties of soldiers follow them across
the Coast Range, but never enter the Sierra."
[Illustration: SIERRA NEVADA, UPPER CALIFORNIA.]
The party had not long before passed through a beautiful country. The
narrative says:--"During the earlier part of the day our ride had been
over a very level prairie, or rather a succession of long stretches of
prairie, separated by lines and groves of oak timber, growing along dry
gullies, which are tilled with water in seasons of rain; and perhaps,
also, by the melting snows. Over much of this extent the vegetation was
spare; the surface showing plainly the action of water, which, in the
season of flood, the Joaquin spreads over the valley. About one o'clock,
we came again among innumerable flowers; and, a few miles further,
fields of beautiful blue-flowering _lupine_, which seems to love the
neighbourhood of water, indicated that we were approaching a stream. We
here found this beautiful shrub in thickets, some of them being twelve
feet in height. Occasionally, three or four plants were clustered
together, forming a grand bouquet, about ninety feet in circumference,
and ten feet high; the whole summit covered with spikes of flowers, the
perfume of which is very sweet and grateful.
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