ow us lay the charming town, wrapped in the calm repose that
distance always gives even to scenes of great activity; beyond this
stretched away along the valley such an enchanting vista of green
fields and golden flowers, and pretty houses nestling in foliage, and
orchards bending 'neath their luscious fruits, that it appeared a
veritable paradise; and the effect of light and color, the
combination of perfect sunshine and well-tempered heat, the view in
one direction of the ocean twenty miles away, and, in the other, of
the range of the Sierra Madre only seven miles distant, with the
San Gabriel Valley sleeping at its base, produced a picture so
divinely beautiful, that we were moved to smiles or tears with the
unreasoning rapture of a child over these lavish gifts of Nature. Yet
this same Nature has imposed an inexorable condition on the
recipients of her bounty; for most of this luxuriance is dependent
upon irrigation. "The palm," said my informant, "will grow with
little moisture here, and so will barley and the grape-vine; but
everything else needs water, which must be artificially supplied."

"How do you obtain it?" I asked.

"We buy the requisite amount of water with our land," was the reply.
"Do you see that little pipe," he added, pointing to an orange grove,
"and do you notice the furrows between the trees? Once in so often
the water must be turned on there; and, as the land is sloping, the
precious liquid gradually fills the trenches and finds its way to the
roots of the trees."

[Illustration: A RAISIN RANCH.]

Dealers in California wines declare that people ought to use them in
preference to the imported vintage of Europe, and the warehouses they
have built prove the sincerity of their conviction. One storehouse in
the San Gabriel Valley is as large as the City Hall of New York, and
contains wooden receptacles for wine rivaling in size the great tun
of Heidelberg. We walked between its endless rows of hogsheads,
filled with wine; and, finally, in the sample-room were invited to
try in turn the claret, burgundy, sherry, port, and brandy.

[Illustration: AN ORANGE GROVE, PASADENA.]

[Illustration: A CALIFORNIA VINEYARD.]

"How much wine do you make?" I asked the gentleman in charge.

"In one year," was the reply, "we made a million gallons."

I thought of the Los Angeles River which I had crossed that morning,
and of its sandy bed one hundred feet in width, with a current in
the centre hardly larger