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IPOWAISVO9&.B
wEpNESDAY; MAY 12, 1847
It iii not always May.
=
Tye 5110 IS bright—the air is clear—
The darling swallows soar and sing—
And from the stately elms I hear
The bluebird phrophesying spring.
So blue yon winding river flows,l
It seems an outlet from the sky,
Where, waiting,till•pie west wind blows,
The freighted elotids at anchor lie.
All things are new ; the buds, the leaves
That gild the elm-ttee's nodding crest.
And even the nest beneath the eaves;—
There are no birds in last year's nest.
AU things rejoice in youth and love,
The fullness of their first delight?
And learn train the soft heavens above
The melting tenderness of night..
JlsiJen that read'st thii simple rhyme,
Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay ;
Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime,
:For, oh, it is not always May !
Enjoy the spring of lore and youth,
To some good angel leave the rest ;
For time will teach thee soon the truth,
There are no birds in last year's nest.
Internal Evidenee.
A matt of subtle reasoning asked
A peasant, if he knew
Where was the internal evidence
That proved his Bible true!
The terms of disputative art
Had never reached his ear—
He•laid his hand upon his - heat%
And only answered—"nans.."
nteresting Letters from California.
Climate, Son. Productions, Commerce, Re
sources, Statistics, &c.,
hiosrcasy, California. Nov. 1, 1847.
Tonle Edilors.of the North Anitrieem:
GENTLEMEN :—ln
. wi6hing to give you all
lime information i n pouter respecting
caimoyvoid mentioning its pro
uctions of ninny various kinds of exquisite
rung. In (act, California front one end to the
utta is capable of being metamorphosed into
a wrfeet t;ri.hard.
here are twenty-one Missions in Upper
Gliturnia, and each of them have one or ljco
Inge orehardd, consisting of from four to ten
;,res of land. All of these orchards are full
of fruit trees, of different:kinds and classes,
a.,d 110 M ithstanding they have had no care la
lea of then for the last six or eight year.,
; , 11III!, of them are not so much as. fenced in)
Hill4hey yield fruit in abundance, and to my
rrnam knowledge, not one of these. trees have
leen pruned, or attended to .in any manner
Whatever (unless to strip them of their fruit
for the space of ten years.
Derides the orchards,' which contain apples
and pears of various kinds. ,peaches, pomegra
nates, plums, nectarines, and in tile !mire sou th
em part of the Territory, oranges in abundance.
The! have • each, with the, exception of two
missions, one or two large vineyards,' which
produce both the blue grape and the - Muscatel
in the inghest perfection ; the vines some indi
viduals take the trouble to prune every year.
and in the month of September gather the rich
clusters,. which vets• amply rewards them fur;
el(' trouble.
Santa Barbara - , though the soil is not so kr
tile as the more northern parts. is a complete,
garden. almoist every house having its orchard,
and -most of them a vineyard ; the town of the
Angels surpasses Santa Barbara in its produc
tions of fruits, on account of the facility with
which it can be watered. The same may be
said of the Puebla de San Jose, except Where
vineyards have been spoken of.
Gooseberries and currants can scarcely be
said to haVe been introduced into this country,
there being as yet but a very few vines, which
are in the possession of one or two private
gentlemen, who are_c_ultivating them wills great
care ; perhaps they do not amount to thirty
lashes or vines in all California. Like most
other things. with a little industry. intelligence
ml care, California would be one of the first
flit countries ir. the world
Item are likewise sylvan fruits in abun
nee, such as raspberries, strawberries whor
de`-ernes. blackberries& various others, whieta
Is many parts are highly flavored. In short,
verily believe that from the general fertility
of the soil, and the difference of climate, that
almo s t every kind of fruit may be produced
and brought to perfection in this country ; be
cause what one
,part of it willanot produce, 'am,
other part will.
Nov. 3.—An extensive commerce -between
ins country and the Sandwich- bland has been
opened within the preceding two :or three
1 ". but like every thing else here. it has not
been canied on to one•fiftieth part of the extent
might be were the inhabitant" inclined to in
dustry Lumberl is now annually shipped
-from this place to the Sandwich Islands ; inch
boards are sold here at fifty dollars per thou
sand feet, and all sorts of lumber from one inch
thick upwards, at forty dollars per thousand,
lbiu measure ; methinks I hear you say,
that an enormous price ! yet still, before tim
ber began to he sawed her 3, which was in
1129, Boston ships used to sell the most ordt
airy kind of inch luMber from eighty to one
hundred dollars per thousand feet.
how, sir, here is a country (the northerrr
PM of it) whichitroduces a kind of timber. the
!trim in the known. world to work, and in
I mme nsequantities. I mean what is here cal
led red wood ; it is a species of the pine, and
1 . 1 1 . 3te of an average of two-hundred feet high.
This wood is not subject to the worms, per
h,Pg on -account of the bitteiness, as I have
THE . BRA I FIRI)---..-'::;•-.REPORT:Elt
heard some naturalists say ; neither does it
speedily rot. I have some of it taken out of
the old buildings iu the mission of San Carlo*,
which was built about 1775. and it appears in
every respect as sound as the day it was hewn
out of the tree. It makes moat excelle;p
shingles, perhaps the best iif the world. The
first houses that were shingled in California
were shingled in the year 1831, and the
shingles do not appeir to be injured by time'
or the weather, even in the slightest imagina
ble degree; foi house building it is invaluable.
Nov. s.—The whole :coast of California
abounds in most exquisite fish, of ma ay kinds.
but although a small codfsh, of which there
are plenty all over the coast, aells for a dollar,
still a meal of fish is very - rare on shore ; for
no other reason but becautie no person will
take the trouble to catch mem ; and I .. have
known in time of lent, a small boat to go out
fishing, and one hour after its return the own
er of it has sold from twenty to thirty dollars
worth of fish, and this after about seven hours'
fishing.
In the winter season, every rivulet that leads
,into the sea abounds in salmon, and salmon
trout. Many of these are taken in nets, and
they certainly are cf the very finest kind.—
Here are likewise numerous kinds of shellfish
all along the coast, besides hair seals. and the
valuable sea otter ; and in the - months of Sep.
tember and October, a person may sit in the
balcony of his house in Monterey, and see the
great whale killed, with all the manceuver of
the people employed in killing it. from the mo
ment of lowering the boats into the water. to
their return i f ° the vessel, with theihuge levia
than in tow.'
Flax grows to an extraordinary lenght in
this country. I -have sown it several times in
small quantities in a garden, and being well
aware that the tilling and the. ordering of it
would be very profitable to any person who
would undertake to cultivate tt in a proper
manner..l. cannot but hope that some' of the
many emigrants who are daily arriving will
place their particular attention on this branch
of agriculture. The best tune for sowing it,
from San Luis Obispo to the northward, is in
April; and in the middle of Septembeg the
tiax will be fit to pull. And the best manner
of sowing it is in rows, about fourteen inches
apart, and never dropping more than two seeds
together ; ortherwise, when it gets an inch
high, it is necessary to thin it, by pulling up
some of the stalks, which may be transplan
ted, and by these means produce flax equal, if
not superior, to that of any other part' of the
world.
California likewise abounds in game. Deer
of different descriptions are pientifulin all parts
of the territory. Elk, in the San Joaquin val
ley, are very numerous. The natives go out
in the months of March. April ai.d May, and
lasso vast numbers of them. They are then
very fat. As soon as the elk is caught and
killed, they take off the hide and tallow. The
former is tanned for shoe leather. and the lat
ter is brought into the settlement, and used for
making soap.
Between the months of October and Marsh,
geese, ducks, curlew, &., are to be seen in im
mense flocks, feeding on the plains, or dark
ening the air with their numbers.
The grisly bear is. here to be found in all
places where tricre is not.much passing and re
paying of human beings. They are not so
dangerous as they have been represented. I
have been a great deal among them, and I ne
ver saw a single instance of a bear attacking a
wan, tiidesi it had previously been molested,
or it had been surprised on a sudden.
Nov. 6 —ln the t ear 1825 California was
overstocked with horses, and horned cattle, and
sheep ; and the natives considering horses of
less value than sheep or horned cattle, killed
off many thousands of the former that room
ought be left, and pasture for the other kinds.
They would make large pens near some wood,
and then twenty or thirty men would muster,
and drive in horses and mares by hundreds;
and after picking out such of them as they con
srdered to be of the best quality, they- lassoed
and strangled the remainder.
In the year 1827, Capt. Jedediah Smith
Caine into this country overland from St. Lou
is, arid bought three hundred and ninety seven
head of horses and irtuFs, of the best kind that
could he found in the tiountry ;.and only one
horse amongst them cost as high as fifteen dol
lars—tlie avarage price he paid for them was
about nine dollars.
In 1829 some Nea l Mexicans came here,
and bought many hundreds of mares, at die.
low price of fifty cents each. and among them
were some very splendid animals, the follow
ing year, , the wild Indians began to steal
horses from the settlements, and between
these, and the New Mexican traders; the ser
dernen:s have been left literally withouta horse
to saddle.
Nov. B.—Terhaps there is no country in the
world; generally speaking, where the inhabi
tants are so much on horseback, as in Cali
fornia, or where there are better riders—and
it-may almost literally be said that many of
them are born on horseback, as I shall show'
in the sequel.
We ma y likewise almost say that they are
married on horseback, for the day the marriage
contract is agreed on between the parties, the,
bridegroom's first care is to beg, buy, or bor
row, and sometimes steal, the best horse that
can be found in his district ; at the same time,
by some of these means.. he has to get a sad
dle, with silver mountingi about the bridle, and
theoverleathers - of the saddle must be embroi
dered. Ir matters - not how poor the parties
may be, the articles above mentioned are india
pensible to the wedding; • ,
The' saddle the woman rides has a kind of ,
leattin apron which hangs enr the: horses
rump, and completely covers his . ,hinder parts
as far as - half way down the legs' ;. this like
wise, to be complete, must be embroidered
with silks of different colors and gold
and sil
verthread ; from the lower- part, upwards, it
opens in six or eight parts, and each of these
A
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY, AT . TOWANDA,'BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. S. GOODRICH & SON.
21
El
" REGARDLESS OF DENUNDIATIOST
.ERON ARE quarreg.7
parts is furnished with a number of small pie
ces oflron or copper, so as to make a jingling
noise like so many. small cracked bells. I
have seen one of these aprons with three hun
dred and sixty of these small jingles banging
to it.
The bfidegroom most:alio furnish the bride
with at least ■ix articles of each kind of wo
*tans clothing. an4ilso buy up every thing
Necessary to feast his friends forone, two or
`date days, as the inclinations of the atten
dants invited or uninvited, may dictate.
The day being named for the celebration of
the wedding, the two fine horses•are saddled.
and the bridegroom takes up before him on the
same horse he rides, the godmother that is to
be—and the future godfather takei before him
on his horse the bride, and away they gallop
to church.
As soon as the ceremony is over, the new
married couple mount one horse. and the god
father and godmother the other horse. and they
return to the house of the parents of the bride.
where they are received with squibs. musket
ry, etc., and two persons station themselves at
some convenient place near the house, and be
fore the bridegroom has.time to dismount these
two persona seize him and take off his spurs.
which they hold possession of until the own
er redeems them with a bottle of brandy or a
dollar. —•
The married couple then enter the, house.
where the near relations are all waiting in tears
to receive them ; they kneel down before the
parents and ask a blessing, which is b) the pa••
rents immediately ,ibestowed .1 all persons at
This moment are excluded from the presence of
'the parties, and the moment the blessing is be.
stowed, the bridegroom makes a sign or speaks
to some person near him, and the guitar and
violins are struck up, and dancing and drink
ing is the order of the day.
The moment a child is born 'on a farm in
California and the midwife has had time to
clothe it. it is giVen to a man on horseback.
who rides post haste-to some Mission with the
new born infant in his terms, and in company
with the future g4dfather and godmother, who
present it to a pfiest for baptism ; the sacra
ment having beeri administered, the party re
turn and the child may rest sometimes a whole
month without taking an excursion on horse
back, but after the lapse of this time it hardly
escapes one day without being on horseback
until, the day of sickness or death.
• Thus by the time a buy is ten or twelve
years of a g e he becomes a good horseman, and
it is difficu lt to del him to do any kind'of work
on foot, and almost any Californian would
think less hard of riding• one hundred miles
than he would of walking four hours on foot;
add to this that moat of the labor in California
has necessarily been affected by means of men
on horseback. The taking care of cattle and
horses, lasting them. and going such longjour
neys 'as they are constantly obliged,to travel,
has made them expert horsemen to an extraor
dinary degree. •
•
The horses themselves are of a hardy na
ture, as may be seen by the inhuman manner
in which they are generally treated by the na
tives. If a than wants to travel from thirty to
forty miles from his place of residence, he sad
dles his horse and mounts him ; on hie arrival
at -the town or place of destination, he ties him
to a post ; lie may in some cases give him a
drink of water, and should he remain away
from home four or five days his horse gets no
thing but water, without food all that time, and
if he is a horse of the middling class of Cali
fornian horses, he will travel those thirty or
forty miles back again with the same free.gait
at which he started on a full belly and good
condition ; of course this is only in the sum
mer season when the grass has good substance
and the horse is in . good condition.
I suppose this will hardly he credited by
some of the farmers and horse jockeys in the
United States, but it is nothing beyond the
truth, and besides, a horse when completely
equipped for a journey in this cauntry he car
ries besides his rider a weight of firtitn fifty
five to sixty pounds of saddle gear, and should
the weather be rainy and the saddle get wet,
the weight is doubled. It requires two large
tanned ox hides to fit out a California saddle.
add to-this the wooden stirrups three inches
thick, the saddle tree, stout iron rings and
buckles, with a pair of spurs weighing from
four to six pounds, a pair of goat skins laid
across the pommel of the saddle.with large pock
ets in - them, tine' which reach below the stir:
rep. and a pair of heavy holsters- with the lar
gest kind of horse pistols, and I think it will
be found I have rather fell Short than exagge
rated in my statement of the weight 'whieh a
horse in this country has to carry oh a jour
ney. notwithstanding theyntravel very freely;
and are active in their Motions.
Nov. 16 —The most beautiful part of Cali
fornia is still occupied by wild Indians. There
are no parts in the settlements, nor in the Sac
ramento valley, equal to those situated on the
western side of the snowy , mountains. From
the head df the river San Joaquin' down' to the
elbow, or as it is called in Spanish. the junta
and on each Bide of the river Merced and the
river Reifies lies the most valuable land in Cali
fornia.
From each of _these rivers, two of which
empty themselves into bloke, produce may be
brocight into the bay of San Francisco by go.
ing to the expense Of leinoving some few ina
pediments.,'Which at present exist in the San
Joaquin. The lake has an outlet which is a
natural canal of about one hundred miles long
and about one hundred miles wide, with a con
stant depth of from twenty five to thirty feet.
It is Oniform in all these dimensions from one
end to the - other, and the current is so trifling
that it is almost imperceptible. The reason
of this is that where it enters the San . Joaquin
which is the elbow above mentioned, the
bed of the river is very high, consequently the
water cannot run out of the canal. so last as it
runs into the lake from three considerable riv
ers of which it is formetij and as the_ high bed
of the river prevents the discharge of water
from the lake through thecanal. In the month
of May;June, July and August, the level
Ili
, .
1. •
giound ally around the lake to the diatance.or
eight or ten miles is alt overflown ; and then
the water is gooci,aS the overflow is occasion
ed by the inciting of the snow in the snowy
mountain, but in the'other months the water
of this lake is very brackish and very unwhole
some.
On the dryer parts of this immense- plain,
where the waters , which overflow frum the
lake do not reach, the soil is generally barren,
ana in. some places for miles and miles the
ground. is so , soft and. light, that though perfect
ly dry, a horie will sink up to his knees al
most every WI) ; wherever this is the case the
ground is,eompletely barren, bearing neither
shrub, bush, tree, nor grass or herbs -of any
kind. ,The whole of this valley is pestered
with rattle-snakes, so much so that it is dan
gerous to be down in the camp on it. without
taking the precaution to search well to sett if
there are any holes, and if none are to be seen,
it is necessary to drag some bush which may'
be found on many parts of the plain, where the
ground is harder, and with it make a large cir
cular fire, and get into the circle . .where a per
son may lie with more safety from these dead.
ly venomous animals. I have been travelling
over this plain in hot w'Pather, and. for the
space of ten.m:iles have seen rattle-snakes as
thick as we commonly see ground. squirrels
where they are considered plentiful.
November 26th 1846.—1 shall now give you
an account with the descriptions of the princi
pal classes of timber in .California, beginning
with the red pine tree. This tree commonly
grows hum two hundred and fifty to three hun
dred feet high. I have measured one when
felled that was three hundred and twenty-seven
feet' from the butt to the point or head ; this
was by no means an uncommon sized tree, be
ing but nine feet in diameter where it was cut
off, and the largest ever I saw measured while
standing was fotty-two feet in circumference.
I have heard of much larger ones, but never
saiv one; •these trees all run very regular in
their dimensions from the Inittom to the top.—
The heart of a young trea' begins to turn red
at about six years old, - the outside from two to
three inches'. in thickness, always remaining
white; the bark is stringy and difficult to cut
through, even with the sharpest 'axe ; it may
well be compared to the husk of the cocoa nut.
The leaf and burr are very similar to those of
the spruce tree ; it contains maitre rosin, and I
have seen several trees felled in the sriring of
the year which have discharaetras_much as a
barrel of water the moment the axe' has struck
the heart of them.
The timber which this tree produces is in-
valuable for its durability, the worm does not
enter it after it has been put to use, though
while the tree is stand ing there is a worm which,
is very injurious. to it, always entering at the
bottom of the branches where -the knot is al
most equal to a flint stone, and always eats up
wards, so that a tree is very often found to be
sound and good high up as the first branch,
and above that is sometimes found greatly iti
jured by the worm, but whenever the tree is
cut down and dried this worm dies, and, no
other insect ever enters the wood, and if it is
properly seasoned belore being put to, (fee,. I
cannot say if ever it rots at all, unless k is put
in some places in the grotind where k is expos
ed,to the wet and dry seasons alternately, and
even then' it lasts. an immense length of time.
I am well acquainted with a rich farmer in this
ecountry who built a cattle pen of this wood- in
the year 1824, and the stanchions, where none
of the outside or white part of the tree has been
used. 'are not the least decayed. Several of
the old houses in the Mission of :;an Cirlos
were pulled down this year for the purpose of
getting the timber they contained, and which
was red wool, and the beams and lintels were
as sound, to all appearance, as the day they
were put into these houses, which must have
been some sixty or seventy years' agii, and yet
by driving the plane once over them they show
ed as beautiful and bright a red as the day they
were cut down,-
For shingles this tirnber has not its equal.
either for the ease with which it is worked or
for its durability. I have seen a man make
bt, hand, that is to say split, shave and joint.
fifteen hundred a day for two months at a
time. -
This tree is fond of hilly ground it is sel
dom..l.l)nd on level places, but in the valleys
and 'on the sides and tops of mountains. it grows
in immense groves, and the great demand there
is for it both in this country and at the Sand
%itch Wands. proves the superiority of it to all
other kinds of timber - on the shores of the north
Pacific Ocean. I have called. it the red pine,
because I have heard many disputes between
botanists as to its proper name, and it appears
to me to resemble some species of pine nearer
than any thing else.
November 281 h.—In resuming my discourse
on'the pine tie, or as it is called here the red
wood free, it merely remains to -say, that from
ten leagues to the southward of Mowery up to
forty degrees north latitude. California abounds
in it, and exportation market has increased to
such a degree that the present day a board of
this species of wood cannot be bought in Mon
terey for any price, and several buildings have
been stopped this year fur wain of this class r at
umber. Since July last there have been no
less 'than five ships in Monterey looking for a
cargo of red wood boards, joist or, shingles;
and none of them were able to procure as much
as they required, merely for the want of labor
ers or capnalists who could turn their attention
to this branch of commero and industry. ,
Monterey half surrounded by groves of
piney which extend in come places about ten
miles back, in others two or three. These are
of an excellent quality for ship masts and yards,
when cut in the propersenson ; they are prin•
cipally a sett of white pine, very' tough, and
run generally from thirty to one hundred and
tea feet high. antl,,from ,one, to four feet in di
ameier."seldom exceeding the latter t the tipw
ber makes excellent flooring, but must he eat
in the,winter,and =Vibe well aeasoned before
beineused. Acton the bay, at Santa Cruz,
and tcrtbe northward are there immense quanti
111
ties of yellow pine: Samples of the red wood
and white and yellow pine were la-t year taken
to the Marenese islands by the French nits
sinnary ship Lyon.
I Fltere are likewise several kinds of oak in
California; the large black oak tree_ is very
plentiful, though, the trunks of none of them
grow very high, yet there are some few places
where the trunk of these trees grow as high as
fifty feet clear of. branches, but the common
growth of them is from fifteen to thirty ,
feet, seldom exceeding the, latter clear of
branches.
About twelve miles to the southward of Mon
terey is a large cypress grove; this is another
very valuable class of timber, both for its beau
tiful clear gram. and for its durability ; this
tree does not grow large here ; they run com
monly. not over seventy or eighty feet high,
and at about twenty-five or at most thirty feet
from the gr3und they begin to branch out,-con
seqnently the tubber above that height is un
serviceable.
Buttonwood, willow, poplar,-alder, cotton
wood and black and white ash, are very shun-,
dant all over the country ; and.sonte of these
grow to 'an immense size, but are little used
exc,pt for fencing or building wooden huts in
the roughest style. There is likewise a ape.
cies of shrub oak growing in this country very
abunlantly, , flut I know of no other use/ti can
be put to but firewood, and ;or this purpose it
is excellent, though many people say the bark
is very excellent for the purpose of tanning ;
the tree scarcely ever grows eight feet straight
up ; it generally begins to gro crooked from
Its very root; smoetimes ye , se It to make
knees: but I do not believe it. ruble, and a s
maggot generally gets into it the rat year after
it is cut down.
On the borders of the Sacramento river and
in the Sacramento valley, besides the different
species of timber already mentioned will be
_found, the walnut. hickory, maple and several
ott . .er kinds of useful timber. In short, il Cali
fornia was a well watered (though this is not
scarce) as it is wooded, it woule surpass every
country in the known world.
Decemder I at—The grisly Hear of Califor
nia is the most savage animal to be lotind in it.
It is a very dangerous animal when snacked,
but in all my travels in California, in the course
of winch I have seen several hundred's. I have
never kno"-n a single instance of a bear attack
ing a man, unless the inan has in some way or
other molested the bear, either by coming up
on him suddenly, or disturbing the animal in
some way or other. I have heard of men be
ing attacked by bears or a bear; without the
man in the first place having given any provo
cation, but I have so many reasons to doubt the
truth of these stories, that I can almost assert
that such is not the case. I have invariably
seen them run from a man whenever they could
see Mut or smell him at a distance:
I know perhaps of some twenty or thirty in
stances'of men having been attacked by bears,
but in every instance the bear has been pro.
voked in some way or other, or surprised by
his adversary.
A full grown California he bear, when lying
stretched out on his back, will measure from
his nose to the claws of his hinder feet about
ten feet in length, and they are about five feet
round the body. 'they have great muscular
strength, and their color is generally a dirty
gray or a dirty dun. The hair is very coarse
and'about 5 inches long all over the body, and
when the animal is surprised orexcited, every
hair on his body • stands on end. They live
chiefly on berries. hilt sometimes kill cows and
calves and eat them. In the winter season
they live entirely on acorns, which abound in
this country, and then they get vety fat. I
have seen fifteen gallons of oil taken fronia fat
bear, though this is not common.jbut 10 or 12
gallons is often taken from them.
The she hear generally brings forth two or
three cubs at a litter, but a she bear has never
been killed,during her pregnancy. The opin
ion of the people here with. regard to this sin
gular circumstance is, that the moment the she
bear finds herself pregnant she hides herself
avcay, and never comes out of her hiding place
vntil,she has brought forthhe'r young; and
that during all this time she is fed by the male.
%Vhen the female has young ones she is very
savage, though not very daring. I 'pap seen
the young ones lassoed several times, when the
mother would remaidat a distance from the
horsemen, traversing the ground backwards
and forwards, tearing it with her claws and
snorting and Buffing, here eyes red as fire, and
every now and then she would dart forward as
ilwith a determination to defend her young,
hut on any horseman turning his horse towards
her, and making a motion with his lasso she '
would again retreat to a distance:
They are excellent climbers, when the tree
they wish to climb is latge; they will go up
a large oak tree asminible as a cat, and if they
cannot find as many acorns on the ground as
they want, they climb an oak tree which they
have previously observed to be well stocked
with acorns, and go out on the richest branch
that is on the tree,-and taking hold of the branch.
with their fore claws, they let their body hang
down and keep jerking and shaking the branch
until it breaks, when bear, branch and acorns
all come down 'together, and the bear makes his
feast. They likewise, when berries are scarce,
dig up moles, squirrels, &c. The flesh of the
California bear is not good eating. unless it be
the feet 'and the hams. These are excellent,
let them•be cooked what way they will. -
December 2d.—Bear•baiting i bull.baitingand
horse•racing were formerly the constant diver
sions on all great feast dap, but have latterly
been for the most part dime away with since
the country has been turned upside' down by
civil contentions.
The two former of these.diversions were
barbarous in the extreme. When a Wear was
to be baited with a bull.they were both brought
into an area fenced in.about, two hundred yards
square. and the bear's hind leg was .rnade fast
to the bull's fore leg, with . a scope between of
about twenty-five or thirty feet; the animals
being fastened in this manner, if either of them
Il
IE
she wed a di/Melilla nun tw the combat. a horse
man Would throw his lasso over the. bear and
drag bum toward the bull and they would keep .
doing this untifthe bull got exasperated. when
lie would move - really kill the beig with his
horns. ,*
IV bile they are lighting. the boll always ap
pears to pay the must attention to the defence
of his fore feet, iwhich the bear invariably men
to get hold of wadi his teeth. I have seen a
bear get hold of a bull , between the horns with
his teeth and hold him there with the bull's
nose on the ground for then space of ten mi
nutes, sod on being hauled off by the horseman,
again catch the'bull by one of his fore feet and
bite it or tear it completely off by 'the lower
joint.
Should the first bull not kill the !tear, whtali
he is sure to do if it is an old mountain bull, a
seeontl one is brought in, and sometimes a
third, but the bear never has fair play ; as he
is made fast by the hied leg, he gets entangled
and often loses what would be a mortal grasp
to the bull; bot as the bear is destined to be
killed whether he conquers or not—the people;
as they have no feeling for dumb animals of any
kind, take a delight in torturing him. To be
sure the bull does not tare much better, for it
seldom happens after he is let luose that he is
able to. go a mile before he is overtaken by
some men who are always lying in wait for
him, and his hide is taken off and his carcase .
thrown to the dogs.
Bull-baiting with horsemen is another barba
rous diversion, of which the natives of this
country are very fond; but neither in this does
the animal get any fair play. Before he is let
loose in the ring his horns are sawed off; be
is then allowed to get on his legs in the midst
of from fifty to one hundred men on horseback,
who ride before and behind him, with their
blankets or ponchos on their arms, holding
them out ready to blind the bull with them
should he make after them, if it were not for
the precaution which they take in cutting off
the bull's hornseimany a noble creature would
be slain on these days. The principal feat in
this cruel diversion consists in taking the horse
as close to the bull's head as possible and
watching his motions, and as the bull makes a
spring, to clear the horse by a dexterous and
agile movement, which most of these people
know how to make in a most admirable man
ner.
This is all that Californian bol -baiting eon
slats of—being nothing more than a worrying
of the animal until he is completely exhausted,
when lie is turned out to lose his life imd hie
hide, and another one is brought in to share
the same fate, in the same manner:
The owners of these bulls of course are the
owners of their hides, but they must be extra
ordinarily vigilant if they get one hide out of
fotir that are taken off.
December 3d.—There is a—diversion very
much in vogue among the natives orthis coun
try, called ••'Drawing the Cock." This is
amusing so far as showing off the horseman
ship of the Californians, but as there is a de
gree of cruelty attending it. a humane person
cannot derive much pleasure from the exhibi
tion.
A live cock is taken and buried in the ground
on some level spot up-to his neck, and a prize k
is put up for thu person who draws him out of
the ground from his saddle—the horse being at
the same time at his greatest speed, Any per
son whatever may contend for the prize, and
I have on some occasions seen from ten - to
twenty cocks drawn from the ground in this
manner as fast as they were burned.
In performing this feat, a horse that has good
government in the mouth is necessary. The
Icock being placed about seventy•five yards from
the place where the horse starts, the rider gives
1 hint the spur , and when he comes within about
10 yards of the cock lie takes hold of the horse's
mane with one band, and as he hangs himself
over; with the other hand makes a grasp at the
cock, which a good rider will seldom fail in
drawing front the ground. The cock he like
wise claims as his prize, and generally twists
his neck as soon as he gets him.
There is yet another diversion which the
; Californians are very fund of, and Will leave
any kind of business they may have on hand
to attend it ; this is throwing a bull or a mare
by the tail--a parcel of men will get together
and go to sonic place whet 4 there are a number
of wild bulls, the wilder and more fierce the
hulls are the better they are fur the purpose.—
For this as well as all other diversions they
I take the beet horses they can find, and having
arrived at some place where there are plenty
1 of cattle, They part out the largest bull they can
see, and start after hint ; as soon as they over
take him a scuffle ensues for the first hold of
the tail: and lie who gets it takes a turn over
his right hand, g uiding his horse with the left;
I l ie then places his right hand above his right
knee, so gettiitg ll.e tail of the bull under his
knee ; as soon as lie has,, the tail well secured
in this manlier, he guides the horse off the bull,
which is on his right, to hie left, and by a sud
den prick of the spur increases the velocity of
the horse so suddenly, that the bull is thrown
over 'and over ; and I have seen the largest
kind of a bull rebound two feet from the ground.
the rebound being occasioned by the force of
the fall. The harder )he aniuril tuns the easi
er he is to be thrown,
It is not strength of ..A..1. 4...% is necessary
to throw a heavy animal in this manner; it is
art, It is principally necessary to know what
impulse to give the horse, and at what moment.
and in what position to place the body, so as
to assist the horse and give more Wee to the
arm.
Iliave seen high wavy); het at this Amuse.
ment, and it engages the attention comidera
,bly. particularly as there - 'w no great degree
of aroelty attached to it: to be sure the falls
the bulls get may bruise them a little, hut it
is very seldom they get seriously hurt, perhaps
not more than one time in a hundred. I don't
know but the min hall the worst of it, fur bib'
sure to . get his right hand skinned.-often to the
hone, but that he thinks nothing of—he is on
horseback and, he is happy.
.
mtnlmitua iteo