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having picked out perhaps thirty, or forty it would be hard for an editor to find many more that come up to the level of average magazine verse.

The sentimental ones are too gushy, the comic ones generally silly rather than bright, and it is only when the nature poems and those in serious mood are reached that the adult reader can read with patience. We have allowed thirty or forty as good and this is enough to justify the book, the proper criticism being that the standard is not set higher and fully half of the matter excluded.

The California colleges, both the Leland Stanford, Junior, University and the University of California are represented, the latter but scantily, though, perhaps, as fully as it has deserved. There is no such poetic impulse in that University now as there was in the days when Professor Sill, by his own example and by his great kindness to those of his pupils who showed any trace of poetic stirrings, made a group of verse writers in a single college that could have compared with all the writers in Cap and Gown. The little book College Verses" published in 1882, soon after Professor Sill left the University, is quite sufficient to prove this.

If we seek for reasons for the comparative barrenness in American colleges in regard to verse, perhaps it may be found in the great overcrowding of the curricula with the splendid results of modern science, which in the shape of philology and its kindred branches invade even the realm of the English departments and shut out the gentle spirit of humanity study.

Educational Books

THE Consensus of modern pedagogic thought and practise is that the best way to teach any science is by the natural or experimental method. Physics for Grammar Schools' teaches the elements of physics by means of experiments. These always awaken the interest and enthusiasm of the student and lead him to learn by seeing, doing, and observing, all natural methods.

The book presents only such experiments as have been found by experience to be serviceable. They are simple, and easy to be performed, either at home or in the class room. The pupils are required to observe each experiment closely and to record the results in the blank spaces left for this purpose. The book is elementary enough for grammar schools, and at the same time it follows the methods indicated in the requirements for admission to the best colleges. Those who wish to use the best text-books will not hesitate to adopt this one.

1Physics for Grammar Schools. By Charles L. Harrington, M. A. New York: American Book Company: 1897. Price 50 cents.

The Pennsylvania Reader' has been prepared to suit the especial requirements of the children of Pennsylvania. As supplemental either to the United States History or to the fourth reader, it will be found peculiarly interesting and valuable. Persons, places, and events, of historic interest constitute the theme, each complete within itself and altogether forming an excellent compilation of State history. Some of the selections will be found rather heavy for the class for which the book is evidently intended, but the wise teacher will know when best to require the preparation of these. Taking it all in all, the Pennsylvania Reader will certainly find a welcome in many a class room in the State whose corner-stone was "brotherly love."

The purpose of A Study of English Words is to furnish in a form suitable for school or private study a summary of the most important facts relating to the English language, with special reference to the growth and change of English words. The plan of the book is simple, and the study is made attractive, as well as instructive. The work includes a brief treatment of the general principles of language growth as exemplified in the Indo-European languages, and a study of the different elements of English, showing the growth of our language from its original roots into a new language of greater strength and universality than any of its predecessors. The chapters on words, their growth, changes, forms, meanings, spelling, and synonyms, and the treatment of roots, stems, prefixes, suffixes, etc., will be found particularly useful to young students, giving them a discriminating knowledge of words and a training in the accurate use of language.

Masonry in California

MASONS of California have reason to be grateful to Mr. Sherman, the compiler, and Messrs. George Spaulding & Company, the publishers, of Fifty Years of Masonry in California. It is gotten up in sumptuous style, with heavy coated paper, beautiful type, half tones in abundance, running up to 9x11 in size, steel plates, illuminated initials, and all the resources of modern book-making. Many of the illustrations are very beautiful and of historic interest apart from that connected with the fraternity. The text is interesting, and so far as may be judged by one not an adept in the mystic rites, complete, accurate, and valuable. The work is to be in twenty parts and is delivered monthly at $1.00 a part.

*The Pennsylvania Reader. By Stephen O. Goho, A. M. American Book Company: New York: 1897.

3A Study of English Words. By J. M. Anderson. American Book Company, New York: 1897.

4Fifty Years of Masonry in California. Compiled and edited by Edwin A. Sherman. San Francisco: George Spaulding & Co.: 1897. In twenty parts. Parts I-III now ready.

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FREE LIBRARY,

Overland Monthly

VOL. XXX. (Second Series.) -October 1897.- No. 178

TWO PICTURES OF AN UNKNOWN BIT OF THE MONTEREY COAST'

I. THE LAY OF THE LAND

BY HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS, PH. D.

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HE region about Monterey, the old historic capital of California, with its woods and sandy beaches and beautiful drives, is deservedly famed as the most attractive one on the whole coast of California. But few are aware, however, that within easy reach is a stretch of the grandest and wildest scenery, with ocean and mountain views of surpassing grandeur. This piece of mountainous coast is a terra incognita to all save a few scattered stock raisers who live by themselves in a world of their own. They pack in their supplies over the rough and dangerous mountain trails, many of them going out but a few times in a year. and picturesque, and rendered doubly attractive by its inaccessibility, there is no more inviting region in the whole Coast range for a summer's outing.

Wild

Santa Lucia mountains embrace nearly the whole of this almost unknown region, stretching south from the town of Monterey and lying between the Salinas valley and the ocean.

1 See also "Over the Santa Lucia," by Mary L. White, in the OVERLAND for November, 1892, and The Last of the Vaqueros," by Allan Owen, in the March, 1896, number.

The best general idea of these mountains, without actually making the acquaintance their rugged trails, is obtained from the deck of one of the little coast steamers. Going south from Monterey, the boats pass this part of the coast in the night, but the north bound ones leave San Simeon about two o'clock, and during the long summer afternoons one can sit upon the upper deck and obtain a good idea of the grandest and wildest stretch of the California coast.

From San Luis Obispo to San Simeon there is a strip of beautiful rolling country between the Santa Lucia mountains and the coast. After we leave San Simeon, bound north, the range gradually rises higher and approaches the ocean until it finally crowds out all the patches of level land. The crest of the range attains an elevation of over four thousand feet, which it maintains for many miles, the mountains rising with steep unbroken slope from the great cliffs at their base.

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(Copyright, 1897, by OVERLAND MONTHLY PUBLISHING COMPANY) All rights reserved

Brown, Meese & Craddock, S. F.

never be forgotten. The trails are rough and hard to follow, the cañons deep and precipitous, while the occasional fogs frequently cause one to lose his way, yet to the lover of nature in her primitive aspect there is an abundant reward. To the artist there is a never-ending panorama, while the botany of the State is perhaps nowhere less known or more interesting, as is also the case with the geology. The redwood is generally supposed not to extend south of the Santa Cruz range, but in all the large cañons of the ocean slope of the Santa Lucia mountains its giant trees are abundant.

Although the first forty miles from Monterey are easily passed over, yet the steep and narrow road, with the mountains rising close on the left and the rugged granite cliffs on the right, presents such an ever varying picture that one cannot grow weary. Scattered houses appear here and there, but in general they are not very pretentious and rarely show signs of ever having seen a coat of paint, while their mossy roofs and general storm-beaten aspect seem to show that the conditions of existence are not any too favorable along this open coast. Where possible they are set in sheltered spots, or if such are not obtainable, cypress hedges have been planted for protection, but the gnarled and knotted character of these, as well as of the stunted redwoods which have obtained a foothold on the little flats out of the protecting shelter of the cañons, shows only too plainly the effect of the cold ocean winds and storms.

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SANTA LUCIA MOUNTAINS, FROM MOUTH OF MILL CREEK

fore we pass Carmelo bay and it is late in the evening when Point Pinos is rounded and we tie up at the little pier at Monte

rey.

From Monterey we will now retrace our steps, and with a good pack mule and sufficient provisions for two weeks, attempt to make our way down the coast through this region which seems so inviting.

A winding, hilly road has been built down the coast for forty miles to a point a little below the mouth of the Sur river. As far as this, outing parties sometimes go, but beyond, none ever venture. Little do they dream that they are just on the threshold of the real mountains. It is just as well perhaps for the average summer tourist that he does not attempt to go farther, but for the venturesome spirits who are willing to leave their comfortable wagons and either pack a mule with their outfit and walk, or if able, fit out fully with saddle animals, a trip through to San Simeon will

As we approach the Little Sur river, the projecting shoulders from the mountains reach down to the ocean cliffs, and our road leaves the immediate coast line for a long ascent which takes us over one of the spurs and down to the river. As we reach the top, Piedra Blanca bursts into view. It is a vast pile of almost white marble, and from its size as well as color stands out as does no other in this part of the mountains. Passing down a steep zigzag grade, we reach the valley of the Little Sur, which is nevertheless a stream of no mean size. To

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