When we had reached the summit of this ridge, we found the trail level, through a growth of oak trees which were loaded with bromelias and orchids.

Though still dim, the light had brightened as we rose to higher levels.

Graceful ferns and sprays of terrestrial orchids overhung our trail at every cutting or slope.

One spray, which I plucked as I rode under it, was more than a yard in length, and its curiously colored brown and yellow flowers were strangely like insects in form.

At one level summit of our ridge, we came upon a little whitewashed building of adobe, dome-topped, with no windows and but one little door.