creep through the aperture when, in its efforts to do so, it kicked the
case away, and the poor animal was stuck fast, having its head and
shoulders inside. My fellow traveller, on returning home, was surprised
to find his visitor, and so despatched him with an axe, and has for
years used the skin, which is 9 feet 8 inches long. The temperature was
charming, although in the distance we could see the snow-capped
mountains. We run through the antelope valley, gather some juniper
plant, see a skunk, see natural oil wells at Saugus, pass the head of
the Santa Clara Valley, see the San Fernando mountains, go through the
greatest tunnel in America--the San Fernando tunnel, 6,967 feet long,
go by Burbank, where there is a land boom, and arrive at Los Angeles,
where during the two hours of waiting I have a look at the town and a
pleasant chat with Mr. White Mortimer, the British Consul, whom I called
upon. The next day (December 18th) we were on the desert of Arizona,
where we saw Indian camps at places which were somewhat oases as to
plant life. Speaking generally, nothing grows on a great part of this
desert but cactus, of which I am told there are some 200 varieties, from
the dwarf kind to trees 40 feet high. This plant has a strange if not a
weird appearance. Here and there, like solitary sentinels, stands out a
tall cactus, with perhaps two or three heads or branches, growing
perpendicularly with itself. The mountains on either side look as if
they had their origin in volcanic eruptions.

Some parts of the desert are covered with a dwarf kind of evergreen
shrub. We see large numbers of prairie dogs, which are of a size between
a rat and a rabbit; they live in holes like rabbits. There are also
gophers, skunks, prairie rats, rattlesnakes, and hawks, which feed on
snakes and rats. We pass tribes of Yuma Indians, Aztec Indians and Gila
(pronounced Heela) Indians. On reaching a part where is some grass we
see some cattle, which are straying on the line; the engine whistle