e hens, grouse, and squirrels help to vary their
wild diet of worms; pine nuts also from the small interesting _Pinus
monophylla_, and good bread and good mush are made from acorns and wild
rye. Strange to say, they seem to like the lake larvae best of all. Long
windrows are washed up on the shore, which they gather and dry like
grain for winter use. It is said that wars, on account of encroachments
on each other's worm-grounds, are of common occurrence among the various
tribes and families. Each claims a certain marked portion of the shore.
The pine nuts are delicious--large quantities are gathered every autumn.
The tribes of the west flank of the range trade acorns for worms and
pine nuts. The squaws carry immense loads on their backs across the
rough passes and down the range, making journeys of about forty or fifty
miles each way.

The desert around the lake is surprisingly flowery. In many places among
the sage bushes I saw mentzelia, abronia, aster, bigelovia, and gilia,
all of which seemed to enjoy the hot sunshine. The abronia, in
particular, is a delicate, fragrant, and most charming plant.

[Illustration: MONO LAKE AND VOLCANIC CONES, LOOKING SOUTH]

[Illustration: HIGHEST MONO VOLCANIC CONES (NEAR VIEW)]

Opposite the mouth of the canyon a range of volcanic cones extends
southward from the lake, rising abruptly out of the desert like a chain
of mountains. The largest of the cones are about twenty-five hundred
feet high above the lake level, have well-formed craters, and all of
them are evidently comparatively recent additions to the landscape. At a
distance of a few miles they look like heaps of loose ashes that have
never been blest by either rain or snow, but, for a' that and a' that,
yellow pines are climbing their gray slopes, trying to clothe them and
give beauty for ashes. A country of wonderful contrasts. Hot deserts
bounded by snow-laden mountains,--cinders and ashes scattered on
glacier-polished pavements,--frost and fire working together in the
making of beauty. In the lake are several volcanic islands, which show
that the waters were once mingled with fire.

Glad to get back to the green side of the mountains, though I have
greatly enjoyed the gray east side and hope to see more of it. Reading
these grand mountain manuscripts displayed through every vicissitude of
heat and cold, calm and storm, upheaving volcanoes and down-grinding
glaciers, we see that everything in Nature called destruction m