The San Gabriel Valley and the mesa lands lying between the Mission Hills and the ocean are choice bits of God's creation, as are also the interior valleys which radiate from them.

This stretch of fertile land, all of which can be seen from some point of view on Mount Lowe, already contains two hundred and fifty thousand people, and yet only a small portion of the soil is cultivated. It is capable of sustaining a population of several million from the products of the soil alone, not to say anything of its superior location for manufacturing and commerce. Probably before the new century is half a decade old more than a million people will have their homes here.

The portion of this region lying immediately at the foot of Mount Lowe is the most thickly populated section of Southern California. Directly underneath, within a few miles of its base, is the beautiful city of Pasadena, with its sixteen thousand people, and just beyond the Mission Hills, the metropolis of the southwest, Los Angeles, is located, with one hundred and forty thousand population. These two cities show a greater annual per cent. of development than can be found in any other portion of the United States. The upper or western portion of the San Gabriel valley is cut up into fruit farms, which look from the mountains like well kept gardens, and the whole scene is one of busy activity. These cities, towns, orchards and farms give added charms to the landscape.

Through a good opera glass or a field glass the celebrated avenues of Baldwin's Ranch, the Mission San Gabriel, the Convent at Ramona, a portion of the Industrial School at Whittier, many of the public buildings of Los Angeles, and other objects of interest may be seen. A score or more of cities, towns and villages are clearly discernible, and the course of their streets well outlined. The Puente Hills, the Mission Hills, the San Rafael Hills and their surrounding mountain heights, with the peaks of Santiago, San Antonio, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio, San Jacinto, Santa Monica, Santa Inez and San Fernando are all in sight, and beyond these fertile valleys and highlands can be seen the peaceful waters of the Pacific sparkling and glimmering in the warm sunshine, studded here and there with some of the most beautiful islands in the world, the headlands of Santa Catalina standing out in a clear day like the bold cliffs of Gibraltar, and San Clemente, St. Nicholas, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Ancapa, and Santa Barbara bedecking the ocean like the isles of the Grecian Archipelago.