NAPA VALLEY 243 MOUNT SHASTA 253 EL RÍO DE LOS SANTOS REYES (THE RIVER OF THE HOLY KINGS) 279 IN THE SIERRA NEVADAS 284 IN THE HIGH SIERRAS 295 EL RÍO DE LAS PLUMAS (FEATHER RIVER) 301 EL RÍO DE LOS AMERICANOS (AMERICAN RIVER) 307 SHORE OF LAKE TAHOE 313 MARIPOSA SEQUOIAS 319 VERNAL FALLS IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 325 MAP OF THE MISSIONS 343 KAWEAH MOUNTAINS 383 THE MISSION OF PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN, FOUNDED IN 1880 409 THE TALLAC TRAIL TO TAHOE 437 [Illustration: INTRODUCTION] I. INTRODUCTION. This volume has been prepared in the hope that it may serve, not only as a source of entertainment to our own people, but also as a useful handbook for the schools, and as a sort of tourist’s guide for those who visit the state in such numbers, and who almost invariably exhibit a lively interest in our Spanish and Indian place names. We of California are doubly rich in the matter of names, since, in addition to the Indian nomenclature common to all the states, we possess the splendid heritage left us by those bold adventurers from Castile who first set foot upon our shores. In these names the spirit of our romantic past still lives and breathes, and their sound is like an echo coming down the years to tell of that other day when the savage built his bee-hive huts on the river-banks, and the Spanish caballero jingled his spurs along the Camino Real. And in what manner, it may well be asked, have we been caring for this priceless heritage,—to keep it pure, to preserve its inspiring history, to present it in proper and authentic form for the instruction and entertainment of “the stranger within our gates,” as well as for the education of our own youth? As the most convincing answer to this question, some of the numerous errors in works purporting to deal with this subject, many of which have even crept into histories and books for the use of schools, will be corrected in these pages.