California Coast Trails - A Horseback Ride From Mexico To Oregon (1913) (Hardcover)

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CALIFORNIA COAST iTRAILS A HORSEBACK rtRIDE FROM MEXICO TO OREGON BY J. SMEATON CHASE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCXIII THE COAST OF THE MONTARA MOUNTAINS COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY J. SMEATON CHASE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published February rgr$ TO MY BROTHERS WHOSE LOT IT HAS BEEN TO REMAIN IN THE OLD HOME LAND THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED yt TRAVELLER is a creature not always looking xlL at sights he remembers ( how often !) the happy land of his birth he has, too, his moments of humble enthusiasm about fire, and food about shade, and drink; and if he gives to these feelings anything like the prominence which really belonged to them at the time of his travelling, he will not seem a very good teacher; once having determined to write the sheer truth concerning the things which chiefly have interested him, he must, and he will, sing a sadly long strain about Self; he will talk for whole pages together about his bivouac fire, and ruin the Ruins of Baalbec with eight or ten cold lines. KINGLAKE: Eofhen. PREFACE THE little thread of land, so puny, and yet so obstinate that it has almost the look of an intentional provocation, which has kept the two great oceans of the world asunder, is on the point of being severed, and the twin Americas clipped apart. With that event there will open for Califor nia an era of development as striking as that which followed upon the great awakening in the middle of the last century. With increase of commerce and population there will come important physical changes and the obliteration of much of what is dis tinctively Western in life andmanners. Especially for that reason the writer hopes that this volume of impressions and experiences gained during a leisurely horseback-journey recently made through the coast regions of the State may be found timely, and not without interest and value. The matters of principal concern to him in making his trip were not, it is true, the practical ones of commerce and its prospects and possibilities. Rather, the facts and beauties in nature and the humane and historic elements in life were his points of special attraction. Thus it occurs that neither the cities passed on his route nor the industries of the coast region are treated in particular detail. If apology x PREFACE be needed for any dearth of what may be called practical information In the volume, he feels that the lack has been, is being, and increasingly will be supplied by the many capable pens always at work on the categorical and statistical side. In describing the features of the scenery no at tempt has been made to paint in high colors. In deed, on a re-reading of the manuscript the im pression is that, in the desire to avoid the flamboy ant at all hazards, the balance may have been weighted a trifle on the conservative side. But if a mistake has been made, it is In the right direction; and the writer states here his plain belief that Cali fornia, with her magnificent mountain range of the Sierra Nevada, her generally diversified configura tion, a shore-line extending through nearly ten de grees of latitude ( with the variety in climate and in animal and vegetable life which that fact implies), and a history tinged first with the half-pathetic ro mance of Spain and then by the brief but lurid Epic of Gold, is by much themost beautiful, Interesting, and attractive of all the States of the Union* It may fairly be pointed out, further, that there is only one region of the United States, and indeed there can be but few parts of the world, where one may travel with enjoyment for half a year continu ously, secure from climatic vagaries, and carrying on the animal one rides everything needful for com fort by day and night. There might well be organ* ized a Society of California Rovers, whose annual PREFACE xi programme it would be to take to the road, trail, or shore at, say, the first appear