old man's
rifle is at his shoulder. His eye runs quickly through the sights, an
explosion follows, and the bear is dead. The hunter knew well where to
strike a vital point. Satisfied that the monster was powerless, I came
down from the tree.

The other bear, apparently dismayed by the commotion he had created,
turned into the chaparral and disappeared. It required all the rest of the
day to re-collect our party and to repair damages.

Let us now pass from these scenes to the spring of the year 1854. Here we
are then in San Francisco, all ready to start on board the Sea Bird. "Cast
off the lines." "Aye, aye, sir." Off we go around North Beach. You will
see Point Boneta on the north, and Point de los Lobos on the south.
Through the straits we go out at the Golden Gate. Onward we glide past
Farallones de los Frayles, and here we are out on the broad Pacific.

After sailing about three hundred miles south we arrive at San Pedro. We
go ashore at once and secure seats in the stage for Ciudad de los Angelos,
which is situated about twenty-five miles from here in a northerly
direction. There is now, after the lapse of twenty years, a railroad,
instead of Banning's stages, by which one can be transported to the City
of Angels. We shall be obliged to stay here for a few days, to prepare our
outfit. Let us see what we want. Mules and jacks, pack-saddles, saddles
for ourselves to ride, in fact every thing pertaining to camp-life. Here
we can get almost any thing we wish for man or beast.

Well then we will suppose that now we are ready to start. Away we go
towards San Bernardino. We pass the finest of vineyards where thousands of
gallons of wine are made. On, on we go, and at last, after a ride of about
seventy miles, we arrive at San Bernardino. One of the first things which
attracts our attention is the mountain of the same name. It rises
seventeen thousand feet above the level of the ocean, attaining an
altitude two thousand feet above that of Mont Blanc, the monarch of the
Alps.

The inhabitants of the towns are, with few exceptions, Mormons. It was
from this place that we started on a survey, commencing east of the coast
range of mountains, and extending our operations to the extreme boundary
line of California, on the east. The Colorado river was then the line
which separated California from New Mexico.

The party employed in this surveying tour consisted of about forty men.
The first day we went as far as the mouth of