Page:A La California.djvu/22

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14
MY FIRST PASEAR.

terra incognita, and for years to come will be a veritable hunter's paradise. Quail, doves, pigeons, rabbits, squirrels, hares, and other game, are found everywhere, and the pure mountain streams swarm with the beautiful spotted trout of California. Parties of ladies and gentlemen from San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Pescadero, skilled in woodcraft and wise in the ways of adepts with the gun and rod, make excursions into this tangled wilderness, camp out, hunt, fish, picnic, and enjoy themselves for weeks at a time annually; but to the general tourist and the great world at large the country is as little known as the savage and inhospitable wilderness of central and northern Australia.

Between this forest and mountain country, and the shore of the Pacific, there is a narrow but productive farming and grazing country, but seldom visited by travelers, as it lies off the main lines of communication, though quite readily accessible from San Francisco. This too has its attractions for the tourist who is not sight-seeing by the guide-book, and much that is novel, curious, and enjoyable may always be found there.

The Spanish language has many words and terms having no equivalent in the English tongue, which are so identified with the geography and every-day life of California that they have become engrafted upon our local vernacular, and must forever form a part of it. Among the most expressive of these is the paseár. Literally it means to walk, or to take out upon a walk, but conventionally it is a journey