castles, walls, chasms and profound depths it contains and the gorgeous coloring given most of the surfaces. It is among the greatest of the attractions that America, the land of wonders, presents to the seeker after the picturesque. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Beyond the California boundary the Southern Pacific Railway traverses the broad Colorado desert. This is a barren, sandy wilderness, growing nothing but yuccas and cactus, and is depressed far below the sea-level. It is an inland salt-water lake that has mostly dried up, the belief being that it was formerly an extension of the Gulf of California. The railway route beyond passes between the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains, crossing the latter. These peaks rise over eleven thousand feet, and beyond is the pleasant fruit-growing San Bernardino Valley, originally settled by the Mormons in 1851. To the southward is Riverside, in the fertile district where the seedless navel oranges are successfully cultivated, the groves giving an attractive exhibition of orange-growing. Here is the famous Magnolia Avenue, one hundred and thirty feet wide and ten miles long, with its double rows of pepper trees, and extending all the way through orange groves. In its park is one of the finest cacti collections in existence. Adjacent is Redlands, also a flourishing orange-growing city, its sidewalks bordered by stately palms, rose-bushes, pepper trees and century plants, while everywhere are orange trees in their perpetual livery of brilliant green. Around it encircle the high San Bernardino Mountains, thoroughly protecting the fertile valley. To the southward the route then runs out to the Pacific Ocean bound to Southern California, and following down the coast near San Juan passes Dana's Point, over which, in the early Californian days, the hides were thrown for shipment, as narrated by Dana in _Two Years Before the Mast_. Ultimately it reaches the grand bay of San Diego, near the Mexican boundary, which, next to San Francisco, is the best harbor on the Pacific coast.