[Illustration: AT THE BASE OF THE MOUNTAINS.]

It was the old story, and I doubt not there is truth in it; but the
products of California vineyards, owing, possibly, to the very
richness of the soil, do not seem to me to possess a flavor equal in
delicacy to that of the best imported wines. This will, however, be
remedied in time, and in the comparatively near future this may
become the great wine-market of the world. Certainly no State in the
Union has a climate better adapted to vine-growing, and there are now
within its borders no less than sixty million vines, which yield
grapes and raisins of the finest quality.

No visit to Pasadena would be complete without an excursion to the
neighboring mountains, which not only furnish the inhabitants with
water, but, also, contribute greatly to their happiness and
recreation. For, having at last awakened to the fact that comfort and
delight awaited them in the recesses and upon the summits of their
giant hills, the Californians have built fine roads along the
mountain sides, established camping-grounds and hostelries at several
attractive points, and, finally, constructed a remarkable elevated
railroad, by which the people of Los Angeles can, in three hours,
reach the crest of the Sierra Madre, six thousand feet above the sea.
Soon after leaving Pasadena, a trolley takes the tourist with great
rapidity straight toward the mountain wall, which, though presenting
at a distance the appearance of an unbroken rampart, disintegrates as
he approaches it into separate peaks; so that the crevices, which
look from Pasadena like mere wrinkles on the faces of these granite
giants, prove upon close inspection to be cañons of considerable
depth. I was surprised and charmed to see the amount of cultivation