Continuing our journey westward, we passed through a large arid district, in which dry lakes with beds white with soda, and shining in the blazing sun, were plentiful on both sides, but seeing no more interesting features until we arrived at Los Angeles. Here we found much to amuse, and often to instruct. It is an old town, settled by the Spaniards, in 1780, and although now a beautiful city, it has not entirely put aside the garments of antiquity with which the ancient church fathers invested it. Many old adobe buildings still remain, and there are not wanting the ruins of quaint and curious monasteries, moss- covered, and with broken walls and dilapidated belfries, in which the ghosts of long ago seem to have their haunt. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: WITHIN THE JAWS OF GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO.—The Grand Cañon of the Colorado is such a stupendous wonder that we never grow tired of contemplating it. From every point of view we see some new marvel to admire. The variegated and many-hued cliffs are as remarkable for their bewildering beauty as for the grandeur of their lofty heights. Everything is on the most colossal scale, except the little river itself, which goes dashing along in playfulness and glee with no intimation that it is the master workman by whose hands this stupendous wonder was wrought. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: OUR STAGE-COACH CROSSING THE SANTA INEZ.] The river, which washes the eastern limits of the city, is a sluggish stream, but it imparts refreshment to one of the most fertile valleys to be found anywhere in California. Here we find a succession of orange- groves and vineyards, bending low with golden and purple fruitage, while beyond the city’s skirts are orchards of walnut, olive and almond, from which profitable crops are annually gathered. San Diego, 147 miles south of Los Angeles, is another beautiful place, the center of a delightful region, but its interest lies very largely in the fact that it was at this place the first white settler in California pitched his tent, as early as 1769. This great Spanish pioneer, Father Junipero Serra by name, became the founder of twenty-one missions in California, some of which still remain in a fair state of preservation, but a majority exist as mere reminders of the olden time when the Franciscan friars dominated that portion of the Spanish territory. In this southern region the landscape is monotonous, and the air is usually hot, from which fact, no doubt, came the name “California,” which, in the Spanish, signifies “hot furnace,” and was bestowed by the discoverer, in 1534. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: