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Cheeseborough's; whence the daring Foss; a man dear to 

legend; starts his horses for the Geysers。



It must be remembered that we are here in a land of stage…

drivers and highwaymen:  a land; in that sense; like England 

a hundred years ago。  The highway robber … road…agent; he is 

quaintly called … is still busy in these parts。  The fame of 

Vasquez is still young。  Only a few years go; the Lakeport 

stage was robbed a mile or two from Calistoga。  In 1879; the 

dentist of Mendocino City; fifty miles away upon the coast; 

suddenly threw off the garments of his trade; like Grindoff; 

in THE MILLER AND HIS MEN; and flamed forth in his second 

dress as a captain of banditti。  A great robbery was followed 

by a long chase; a chase of days if not of weeks; among the 

intricate hill…country; and the chase was followed by much 

desultory fighting; in which several … and the dentist; I 

believe; amongst the number … bit the dust。  The grass was 

springing for the first time; nourished upon their blood; 

when I arrived in Calistoga。  I am reminded of another 

highwayman of that same year。  〃He had been unwell;〃 so ran 

his humorous defence; 〃and the doctor told him to take 

something; so he took the express…box。〃



The cultus of the stage…coachman always flourishes highest 

where there are thieves on the road; and where the guard 

travels armed; and the stage is not only a link between 

country and city; and the vehicle of news; but has a faint 

warfaring aroma; like a man who should be brother to a 

soldier。  California boasts her famous stage…drivers; and 

among the famous Foss is not forgotten。  Along the unfenced; 

abominable mountain roads; he launches his team with small 

regard to human life or the doctrine of probabilities。  

Flinching travellers; who behold themselves coasting eternity 

at every corner; look with natural admiration at their 

driver's huge; impassive; fleshy countenance。  He has the 

very face for the driver in Sam Weller's anecdote; who upset 

the election party at the required point。  Wonderful tales 

are current of his readiness and skill。  One in particular; 

of how one of his horses fell at a ticklish passage of the 

road; and how Foss let slip the reins; and; driving over the 

fallen animal; arrived at the next stage with only three。  

This I relate as I heard it; without guarantee。



I only saw Foss once; though; strange as it may sound; I have 

twice talked with him。  He lives out of Calistoga; at a 

ranche called Fossville。  One evening; after he was long gone 

home; I dropped into Cheeseborough's; and was asked if I 

should like to speak with Mr。 Foss。  Supposing that the 

interview was impossible; and that I was merely called upon 

to subscribe the general sentiment; I boldly answered 〃Yes。〃  

Next moment; I had one instrument at my ear; another at my 

mouth and found myself; with nothing in the world to say; 

conversing with a man several miles off among desolate hills。  

Foss rapidly and somewhat plaintively brought the 

conversation to an end; and he returned to his night's grog 

at Fossville; while I strolled forth again on Calistoga high 

street。  But it was an odd thing that here; on what we are 

accustomed to consider the very skirts of civilization; I 

should have used the telephone for the first time in my 

civilized career。  So it goes in these young countries; 

telephones; and telegraphs; and newspapers; and 

advertisements running far ahead among the Indians and the 

grizzly bears。



Alone; on the other side of the railway; stands the Springs 

Hotel; with its attendant cottages。  The floor of the valley 

is extremely level to the very roots of the hills; only here 

and there a hillock; crowned with pines; rises like the 

barrow of some chieftain famed in war; and right against one 

of these hillocks is the Springs Hotel … is or was; for since 

I was there the place has been destroyed by fire; and has 

risen again from its ashes。  A lawn runs about the house; and 

the lawn is in its turn surrounded by a system of little 

five…roomed cottages; each with a verandah and a weedy palm 

before the door。  Some of the cottages are let to residents; 

and these are wreathed in flowers。  The rest are occupied by 

ordinary visitors to the Hotel; and a very pleasant way this 

is; by which you have a little country cottage of your own; 

without domestic burthens; and by the day or week。



The whole neighbourhood of Mount Saint Helena is full of 

sulphur and of boiling springs。  The Geysers are famous; they 

were the great health resort of the Indians before the coming 

of the whites。  Lake County is dotted with spas; Hot Springs 

and White Sulphur Springs are the names of two stations on 

the Napa Valley railroad; and Calistoga itself seems to 

repose on a mere film above a boiling; subterranean lake。  At 

one end of the hotel enclosure are the springs from which it 

takes its name; hot enough to scald a child seriously while I 

was there。  At the other end; the tenant of a cottage sank a 

well; and there also the water came up boiling。  It keeps 

this end of the valley as warm as a toast。  I have gone 

across to the hotel a little after five in the morning; when 

a sea fog from the Pacific was hanging thick and gray; and 

dark and dirty overhead; and found the thermometer had been 

up before me; and had already climbed among the nineties; and 

in the stress of the day it was sometimes too hot to move 

about。



But in spite of this heat from above and below; doing one on 

both sides; Calistoga was a pleasant place to dwell in; 

beautifully green; for it was then that favoured moment in 

the Californian year; when the rains are over and the dusty 

summer has not yet set in; often visited by fresh airs; now 

from the mountain; now across Sonoma from the sea; very 

quiet; very idle; very silent but for the breezes and the 

cattle bells afield。  And there was something satisfactory in 

the sight of that great mountain that enclosed us to the 

north:  whether it stood; robed in sunshine; quaking to its 

topmost pinnacle with the heat and brightness of the day; or 

whether it set itself to weaving vapours; wisp after wisp 

growing; trembling; fleeting; and fading in the blue。



The tangled; woody; and almost trackless foot…hills that 

enclose the valley; shutting it off from Sonoma on the west; 

and from Yolo on the east … rough as they were in outline; 

dug out by winter streams; crowned by cliffy bluffs and 

nodding pine trees … wore dwarfed into satellites by the bulk 

and bearing of Mount Saint Helena。  She over…towered them by 

two…thirds of her own stature。  She excelled them by the 

boldness of her profile。  Her great bald summit; clear of 

trees and pasture; a cairn of quartz and cinnabar; rejected 

kinship with the dark and shaggy wilderness of lesser hill…

tops。







CHAPTER II … THE PETRIFIED FOREST







WE drove off from the Springs Hotel about three in the 

afternoon。  The sun warmed me to the heart。  A broad; cool 

wind streamed pauselessly down the valley; laden with 

perfume。  Up at the top stood Mount Saint Helena; a bulk of 

mountain; bare atop; with tree…fringed spurs; and radiating 

warmth。  Once we saw it framed in a grove of tall and 

exquisitely graceful white oaks; in line and colour a 

finished composition。  We passed a cow stretched by the 

roadside; her bell slowly beating time to the movement of her 

ruminating jaws; her big red face crawled over by half a 

dozen flies; a monument of content。



A little farther; and we struck to the left up a mountain 

road; and for two hours threaded one valley after another; 

green; tangled; full of noble timber; giving us every now and 

again a sight of Mount Saint Helena and the blue hilly 

distance; and crossed by many streams; through which we 

splashed to the carriage…step。  To the right or the left; 

there was scarce any trace of man but the road we followed; I 

think we passed but one ranchero's house in the whole 

distance; and that was closed and smokeless。  But we had the 

society of these bright streams … dazzlingly clear; as is 

their wont; splashing from the wheels in diamonds; and 

striking a lively coolness through the sunshine。  And what 

with the innumerable variety of greens; the masses of foliage 

tossing in the breeze; the glimpses of distance; the descents 

into seemingly impenetrable thickets; the continual dodging 

of the road which made haste to plunge again into the covert; 

we had a fine sense of woods; and spring…time; and the open 

air。



Our driver gave me a lecture by the way on Californian trees 

… a thing I was much in need of; having fallen among painters 

who know the name of nothing; and Mexicans who know the name 

of nothing in English。  He taught me the madrona; the 

manzanita; the buck…eye; the maple; he showed me the crested 

mountain qua

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