These thickets were a regular paradise for grizzly bears, for
within the protection of this matted and thorny growth he is as safe as
is the soldier in the rocky fort of Gibraltar. I soon found a way around
the brush and rose high enough so that a backward look over the valley
was charming, quite as much so as the eastern side. I wandered over the
grassy hills covered with great scattering oaks, and came to a grove of
mammoth trees, six feet or more in diameter, with tops reaching two
hundred or three hundred feet toward the blue sky. They seemed to me to
be a kind of cedar, and were far larger and taller than any trees I had
ever seen in the forests of Vermont, Michigan or Wisconsin, and in my
long journey from the East the route had been principally through a
country devoid of good timber. A stranger in a strange land, everything
was new and wonderful. After satisfying my inquiring mind I returned to
camp again, and soon learned that my newly discovered trees were the
famous redwoods, so greatly prized for their valuable qualities.
Taking the most direct course to camp I came, when within two or three
miles of San Jose, to a large extent of willows so thick, and so thickly
woven together with wild blackberry vines, wild roses and other thorny
plants, that it appeared at first as if I never could get through. But I
found a winding trail made by the cattle through the bushes and mustard,
and this I followed, being nearly scared occasionally by some wild
steers as they rushed off through the thickets.
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