The gun, rod and saddle; or, Nine months in California

Front matter

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Preface

*~ ™^HE following pages are almost wholly the record of personal experience. Descending to a detail that would be trivial to the majority of adult readers, they are suited mainly to youth. There are no battles fought, no discoveries made, no mines developed. The great busy world has no time for small matters. And yet there are subjects referred to, in which some persons of more advanced years are interested.

Two objects are aimed at, viz: To furnish instructive entertainment for our young people, who are always reading; and to encourage some desponding invalid not to give up the struggle.

4 PREFACE.

In the work of a regular itinerant minister, in December, 1 871, the author was suddenly

stricken down with typhoid pneumonia, and left vocally disabled. Having slowly recovered during the following year, in December, 1872, he sailed for California. There he lived and hunted in the mountains, rode over the plains, and fished in the streams, until the following October, when he came back, resumed partial labor, and in the spring of 1875, took full work.

He believes that many die before their time — that if personal experience were more closely observed, than the restricted advice of unskillful physicians; if patent medicines were severely let alone; if exposure wras risked and exertion dared, then would many tombs, many years longer await their occupants.

It is hoped that a review of the writer's experience may prove as healthful to others, as the actual exercise was to himself.

I. M.

Chapter I. On The Way

Sea Birds — Marvelous Eating — Color of the Sea — Entering the Bay — A Song spoiled — Scene at the Wharf — Aspinwall — Palms — Vultures — Statues — Churches — Jelly-fish — Railroad to Panama — Wood Chopping — Scant Clothing — Panama — Cathedral— A Coffin Making — School — A Broken Sabbath — Amingo Island — Ants — Wise Crabs — The Pacific — Fire in the Sea — Christmas — Volcanoes — The Captain and Sabbath service — Acapulco — Early Attack — The Town — Market — Garden- Diver — Sights in the Sea — Manzanillo — The Disabled Ship — The "Costa Rica" in tow— San Diego— The little "Gipsy" — A Mirage — Seal Rocks — The Golden Gate — On Land. 1 1

Chapter II. San Francisco To Visalia

Summer in Winter — A Solid City — The Chinese Question — Preachers' Meeting — The Bay — Oakland — Night ride to Goshen — Stage to Visalia — The Town — "Betsy" after game —

6 CONTENTS.

Squirrels — Quail — Rabbits — Jacket and Pantaloons — Hare — Wild-ducks — Scaly success — The Misletoe — Weather — The Sierra Nevadas — Sun-rise — Sun-set — Off for the Mountains. 49

Chapter III. Among The Sierras Grouse Valley

The Outfit — Company — Grand Mountain view — A good Shot — Sky room — Rain and snow — The Hunter's cabin — Grouse Valley — Cabin and Furniture — "Bridget" at heavy discount — Game — Snow — Low Temperature — Visit to Cahoon's — Deer tracks — A five days' hunt — The three-barrelled rifle — Three deer killed — "Betsy" luckless — Music of the Kaweah — The old adobe — Contents of packs — The "Parson" poisoned — How "not to do it" — Farming — Rumbo and the foxes — A dead shot — A wildcat— Hooking Suckers — Change of base. 69

CHAPTER IV. AMONG THE SIERRAS CAHOON's

Cabin and Furniture — A day's fishing — Homer — A Panther — A bear and not a bear — Compromise — Old hunters luckless — Wild flowers — Literature — Domestic employments — A Mountain Sabbath — Milking — Washing dishes — Sand-hill Cranes — Rattle Snakes. — Tarantulas — Mason spider — Lizards — Lake trout — Grouse — A receipt — Bear tracks — Logs and boulders — An Expedition alone — A dangerous ford — Nine deer — A night in a "big tree." — "Betsy's" first deer — Tracks of a Grizzly — The log and boulder quarry — A wonderful flower — A big camp-fire — Hasty moving — Safe return — Second expedition — The hor;e "Gimlet"

CONTENTS. 7

— Boring through brush — View from a summit — A lone Mallard— Mosquitoes — One deer — A bear after "Me and Betsy" — Polite conduct — Another bear — A ride proposed — The Bible and Canteen. 93

Chapter V. The Big Trees

Timber in California — The Red-woods — Cutting and sawing them — Miles of logs — Felling a Red-wood — "The Big Trees," proper — Tulare Grove — The "General Grant" — "The Old Maid"— "Adam"— "Napoleon"— "General Lee"— Tall Stories— The Mariposa Grove — The "La Fayette" — "The Fallen Giant" — "The Grizzly Giant" — A night under his arm — The Calaveras Grove — Fresno Grove — Australian "Big Trees." 138

Chapter VI. Yosemite

Trail to Paragoy's — Sentinel Dome — Glacier Point — Yosemite Fall— Half Dome— Cap of Liberty— Nevada Fall— Vernal Fall — View to the West — To the bottom — Mirror Lake — Royal Arches — Toys from " Noah's Ark " — Steep trail — Night — Trout at and after breakfast — Fourth of July — Through the Valley — El Capitan — Anecdote of Niagara — Two modes of measuring El Capitan — Too oppressive — "Confounded liars" — Impressions of Yosemite. 157

Chapter VII. The Geysers

A Sabbath at Garrote — A drunken priest — Fast driving —

0 CON! ENXS.

Wreck of a Stage — Miraculous Escape — Pluton Creek — Geyser Canyon — Sulphur Springs — "The Devil's Pulpit" — "The Witches' Caldron"— "The Devil's Apothecary Shop"— "The Devil's Grist Mill " — Prompt Exit — New Stage Road to Cloverdale, jyy

Chapter VIII. Mendocino

Extent and Character of Mendocino county — End of a long ride — Little Lake Valley — Mountain Trout — Wretched luck — Among the red-woods — A "two-pounder," — Shooting Salmon Trout — Unexpected immersion — A four days' hunt. — "Spanish George"— Two Deer— Little Fawn— Mr.B. in luck— "Betsy"and

1 useless — More fish — Tussle with a big Trout — Crippled deer

Practice with rifle — Importance of a dog — Carter's "bad luck" — Another hunt — One Deer — Hard scratching — The Orphan Fawn — Gray Squirrels— Wild Pigeons — Weather— Schools and Churches — Estimate of human life — Remarkable traits of Character— Indians — Condition on the Reservations. 187

Chapter IX. Southern California

By Steamer to San Pedro— The "Saints" in a fog — Sinners in trouble — Santa Barbara — The old Mission — Beautiful Sea Weeds — " Sinking Peter "—Wilmington— Compton— Florence — Los Angeles — A ride through the country — " Paradise Re-

CONTEXTS. 9

gained " — Not yet — To San Bernardino — San Gabriel — Cucamonga — The Vintage — The "Mocker " — Opinions — The Desert — Mt. San Bernardino — The Valley — The Town — Mormons— Ride through the country — An old Schoolmate — Sabbath — Back to Los Angeles — A run off — The Frenchman and Whisky— Sketch of a horse by Jehu — San Beneventura — "Bull fight" — "Bearing the Cross" — Staging by water — Climate of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara — The Santa Inez Mountain — The River — Luis Obispo — Salinas River and Plain — Return to San Francisco. 2.17

Chapter X. Homeward

By Central Pacific Railroad — Lathrop — A Grizzly Bear — Sacramento— Rocklin — Colfax — Summit — Cape Horn — Truckee — Snow sheds — Snow-plows — Wadsworth — Virginia City — White Plains— Mirage Lake — Humboldt Lake and River — Promontory Point, where the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific unite — Great Salt Lake — Ogden— Salt Lake City — The Mormons — Weber Canyon — Thousand Mile Tree — Echo Canyon — The runaway cars and the wrecked Dutchmen — The Reeky Mountains— Creston — Lake Como — Short-legged Cat-fish — Artesian Wells — Antelopes— Sherman — Pike's Peak — Cheyenne— Greeley and Denver City — Grand Duke Alexis — Prairie Dog City — North Platte — Sabbath — Scene in a Railroad Car — Sidney — Sharp Practice — Platte River — Omaha and Council Bluffs — St. Louis — Splendid Bridge — Vastness of the country — Home. 241

IO CONTENTS.

Chapter XI. What Luck

Catching a cold — Two results — Information, health, climate — Irrigation — Frequent poverty — Advantages of Southern California —Difficulties — Fruitful capital — Large farms — Cattle and sheep —"John" in the mines — The Jeweled sorceress — Wrecks on the coast — The good alone rewarded — Effect of climate upon invalids — Advice from experience — A prescription for vocal difficulty. 2y2

THE

Gun, Rod and Saddle.

Chapter I. On The Way

44 /^HARLEY, what kind of a bird is

^ that?"

"That? That is a Say-bird, sir."

It was the 1 8th of December. We were in

the middle of the Caribbean Sea, and had not

seen a bird after leaving New York Bay. I

was leaning on the rail near my state-room

door, looking into the mystery of the waves,

had noticed this brown-backed bird sweeping

around our ship, and as our table-boy passed,

having previously learned from him that he had

been often at sea since his voyage from Erin,

1 1

I made <'i serious inquiry for information. I le answered my question most respectfully. He deserved, and a day later, at Aspinwall, received a silver coin, chiefly for that excellent reply.

Just north of Cuba I had seen birds — birds that looked like silver swallows, rising from the waves, flying swiftly from fifty to one hundred yards, then alighting. A riddle followed. Where were they? The sea was rough, and I thought they must be some kind of petrel, at home on the waves. Presently some started and disappeared near the ship. The riddle was answrered. They were flyingfish. They are a curious connecting link between the finny tribes in the deeps below, and the winged families of the deeps above.

But some of the inhabitants of our ship, were to me as much of a mystery as the strangers of the sea.

We had rough weather. Most of us could eat little or nothing for some days, and what little we did get down seemed to multiply indefinitely when it had to come up.

Neptune levied a tribute, and all the powers above and below conspired to see it paid. But he appeared to have a few favorites who were exempted. A man next me at table was one of them. The first smell of salt-water whetted his appetite. The gale proved a grindstone. As we got more sick, he got more hungry. His ability at the table was simply marvelous. To illustrate. He had made a bet with some boon companions and won it. A treat followed. He came to dinner under the influence of liquor. He apologized, first to me, then to some ladies opposite, for being in the condition he was, and then fell to eating. On my first Circuit I had once helped a stout boy of fourteen, in the absence of his father from the suppertable. I thought his eating was serious, when he reached his plate for the fourth piece of long sausage. But here was a man of medium size, who far excelled him. After soup, he paid no attention to courses. Remarking to me that his appetite had been constantly improving since he came on board, he began with a plate of pickles. 1 laving finished them, he attacked a glass of celery, sometimes striking, and as

often missing the salt-cellar, by his plate. Then followed a dish of " fritters," five in number. Then an "onion stew." Then "corned beef and cabbage." When he ordered " boiled mutton," I left. Subsequently, I learned that he finished with a plate of pudding, over which his unsteady hands had emptied the entire contents of the sauce-boat. The opinion that "Man wants but little here below" is not sustained by all the facts.

Land hove dimly into sight, early in the afternoon of the eighth day from New York. Heavy swells were running twice as fast as we, from North-east to South-west. The color of the sea had changed. The Atlantic looked inky black. Now the water was dark green, and sometimes light blue. In conversation with an old sea captain, now on his wray to the Pacific Coast, I asked what caused the changes in appearance? He replied, positively, that they were " Caused by the change of temperature, resulting from the

ON THE WAY. I 5

Gulf Stream flowing around the west end of Cuba." The landsman asked no more questions.

At six o'clock we swept into the little bay at Aspinwall. A dozen or more vessels of various nationalities were lying at anchor. Officers and men were all on deck, and the flags were gayly flying. The bay was smooth as a mirror, the evening beautiful, and all our passengers, steerage excepted, were on the upper deck. On the starboard quarter, a man was using the lead.

Captain Gray, a quiet, old gentleman, stood on the wheel-house, from time to time calling to the men at the wheel, " Starboard ! " " Port ! " "Steady!"

The man with the lead had a powerful pair of lungs, and this was a grand opportunity to use them. So in a most incomprehensible, sing-song way, he kept calling out, " B-y the m-a-a-r-k eight h-a-a-1-f!" " B-y the m-a-a-r-k f-i-i-i-i-v-e ! etc."

The passengers were amused. All conversation ceased, to hear the wondrous song,

IHE Gl N. ROD AND SADDLE.

which steadily lengthened as the depth decreased. The Captain Lost his patience, turned toward the noisy man, and shouted down: "Quit your bawling, sir, and tell us how

mucli water we have."

''Five fathoms, sir," was the prompt reply.

The music ceased. The information was divested of all operatic gymnastics, and was easily understood. I thought of pulpits and choirs that might learn a lesson from the testy order of our long-suffering Captain. Less noise, more definite information.

Our good ship, the Henry Chauncey, swung up to the wharf, and her huge paddle-wheels ceased to revolve. Night and day w-e had felt the throb of her fifteen hundred horse-power enerine, and I had often watched the curious mechanical contrivance that registered her twelve foot strokes. It now marked one hundred and eighteen thousand, seven hundred and five revolutions. The distance run in eight days and six hours was about nineteen hundred and forty miles.

A lively scene now presented itself. The

ON THE WAY. \J

gangways were placed, and the discharge of freight commenced fore and aft. Such a mixture of men! Negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, octaroons, Creoles, Chinese, white English, mixed Spanish, officers, porters, foremen, hurrying and shouting, talking in several languages, the lowing of young cattle being transferred to the cars, the rumble of barrows, the creaking of pulleys, and the puffing of a spunky little donkey-engine, made up a sight and a sound never to be forgotten. The lanterns gleamed, and the boxes tumbled in the great freight depot, until I was fast asleep.

In the morning a company of us strolled through the town. The streets are regular, wide, unpaved; the houses are mostly one story, some two and three. The better ones only, are built of brick or stone. Some of the officers and employes of the railroad and steamship companies have handsome residences, and many choice flowers adorn their tastefully arranged door-yards. Most of the buildings in the city are roofed with tile; many of the poorer ones, thatched with palm-

I 8 THE GUN, ROD AND SADDL1

leaf. The inhabitants arc as various as was the throng at the wharf. They were dres in light summer garb, though it was the twentieth of December. The Thermometer rose to 85 ° before noon. None of the small children were encumbered with more than a loose slip, and many of them played around among the chickens and domestic animals entirely naked. A few were badly formed, others were perfect models of symmetry. Being of a chocolate color, some of the little fellows looked as if made of mahogany, turned and polished in a turning-lathe.

The flags of different nations were flying over their respective Consulates. Various wares filled numerous large shops on the main street. Oranges, limes, bananas, and pine-apples, loaded the fruit stands. And gamblers with their little tables, dice, and piles of silver half-dollars, were as numerous as the venders of fruit. All the natives gamble, and the man who does not, is, to them, a curiosity. The most beautiful object, one which I had long wished to see, is the palm. There are

ON THE WAY. IO,

said to be one hundred and sixty-five species in Columbia alone, though only a.few are seen here. They are all graceful in the extreme. Some of the cocoa palms lift their plumed crests above the highest buildings, and green forever, they stand a perpetual emblem of the tropics. Alongside one of the streets is a handsome bronze statue of Columbus, by Thalberg. It is in an unworthy location, without enclosure, and without elevation. There is a fine granite monument to the Messrs. Chauncey, Stephens, and Aspinwall, on the triangular die of which appear, in alto relievo, the respective busts of those gentlemen.

Near the north beach is the Episcopal Church, erected by the company. It is a neat gothic structure, built of brown stone, brought from the North. The once handsome interior was looking badly, the peculiar climate was making inroads upon the brown stone without, and an air of pending desolation reigned about the place. A rector was no longer employed, and so far as I could learn, there was no Protestant religious service in the city.

Just to the south-east was a small Roman Catholic Church. On the peak of its red tile roof, quietly sitting side by side, were more than a score of buzzards, or vultures. But that was no disgrace to the church, however suggestive it might be, for these birds are very numerous, have the freedom of the city, mingle with the domestic fowls and children, and are really serviceable as scavengers.

In one of the lagoons formed by the incoming tide, I saw a beautiful jelly-fish, just beneath the surface of the water. He looked like an inverted glass bowl, beautiful in form, and almost transparent. I tried to catch him with my umbrella, but he soon got out of my reach by a motion very similar to the opening and shutting of the machine with which I was trying to catch him.

In the same pool, in striking contrast with the jelly-fish, were some black pigs, with the longest legs and noses I ever saw appended to swine. They were gathering roots and shell-fish. As the tide rose, they stuck to their work with genuine pig-headedness. And if Darwin's development theory is correct, it is not marvelous how their legs and noses became so long. They were evidently in a fair way to become either cranes or divers.

At one o'clock we were aboard the cars and steaming out for Panama: distance, fortyseven miles. There are some respectable hills, but no high mountains along the road. The grade is very easy, the road single track, well laid, and mostly ballasted with stone. The ties are made of mahogany, as it is the only wood that resists the terrible depredations of the ants. The same enemy destroyed the telegraph poles. To meet and defeat them, at that point, they moulded poles, or rather pillars of cement. These are about twelve feet high, one foot in diameter at the bottom and eight inches at top.

Owing to the sickliness of the climate, this road cost millions of money, and tens of thousands of human lives. As I stood sometimes upon the rear platform, and looked at those miles of dark ties over which we were thundering, each one seemed to turn into a dead

laborer. But the wheels of trade do not stop for life.

The cars are very plain, solid plank seats, and about as uncomfortable as the poorest emigrant cars here north. Fortunately the passage is short, though the fare seemed quite long enough for those who did not have through tickets. It was twenty-five dollars, gold.

I had expected to see many beautiful flowers and birds. There were neither. Only a few of each, and both very plain. Upon the reeds in a swamp were some black-birds, like those in our own meadows.

There is some good timber, plenty of wood, and nearly all the way, a dense jungle. Many of the large trees were covered with moss, immense festoons of which swayed in the air, and often hung nearly to the ground.

The population seemed very sparse, and the slight houses were built of poles, interwoven and thatched with palm leaves or reeds.

We saw some of the natives getting out wood. Instead of an axe, they used a heavy knife about eighteen inches long. With this they slash a path through the jungle, chop the small trees into pieces about two feet long, and then pack them on their little ponies. For this purpose, they have pads made of reeds coming well down the horse's sides. The wood is laid horizontally against these, under straps or ropes, and piled clear up over his back. The load is then strapped tightly to him, and he is ready to take the trail to market.

We passed a native who seemed to be traveling. He had on a hat, a shirt, and a cigar. That was all. Indeed, we saw some smoking cigarettes, who had not even a hat. No wagons or wagon roads were to be seen. There were some fields of bananas. These are planted in rows like Indian corn, but eight or ten feet apart. Those we saw were about eight feet high, and seemed to be in bearing condition.

At five o'clock, we reached Panama, got aboard the little transport, and were taken to the steamer, which lay at anchor two or three miles out in the bay. All freight has to be

transferred by lighters.

On Saturday, a company of us returned and visited the city. The dilapidated wall toward the sea, and the tile roofs on the generally low buildings within, give the place anything but an imposing appearance. The streets are narrow, but many of them are well paved with cobblestones, and clean. Situated on a bluff, as the city is, the frequent heavy rains wash it thoroughly.

Panama is the centre of considerable trade. Numerous large stores were filled with vast quantities of fancy and useful articles. There were two Protestant, and numerous Catholic churches. Three of these we visited, including the Cathedral on the plaza. They were all in a very untidy condition. Wax figures and gaudy tinsel supplied the place of anything really valuable. The Cathedral, itself, was verging close upon ruin. In the crumbling tower were several old bells, and in niches in front, some wooden Apostles, painted to look like bronze. Unable to gain admission in front, we went to a side door, and in answer to our knocks and calls, an old Creole projected his gray head from a little window up in the tower, and croaked something in Spanish. After waiting a few minutes, the door grated on its rusty hinges, and we were admitted. Making our way over piles of damp rubbish, by another little door, we were ushered into the main audience room. It is cruciform, and probably seventy by ninety feet. Large portions of the marble floor are taken up with memorial slabs. Numerous tablets are also let into the walls and pillars. Some of them are very fine marble, and really handsome; all the inscriptions are in Spanish. The whole place was sadly neglected, and seemed better fitted for a sepulchre than for a church. Indeed, no service had been held there, we were informed, for more than two years. There were large holes in the lofty roof, through which torrents of rain had poured. In the east transept, the cray-fish had worked up bushels of earth between the poorly fitting flag-stones and memorial slabs. It looked as though the dead beneath might be

getting impatient for a resurrection. The sexton had left us to roam at will; and he safely might, for had we been thieves, there was nothing worth stealing. lie reappeared, however, with a metal plate containing some silver coins, which were disposed upon it like a few hot cakes, when necessity for show, at a hotel, exceeds the supply. We added a few to his store — enough to pay for washing his poor garments, and repairing the wretched slippers which he shoved over the floor with his naked feet.

On a little recess stood an empty wine bottle, and in some remote corner, up near the roof, we heard the sound of a carpenter's saw.

With the dead beneath, the wine of life all gone, that ghost of a sexton and gloom around, it seemed as though the carpenter were making a coffin to burv the whole institution. Surely anything so far decomposed were better in the grave than out of it.

We visited a school, also. A pleasant little man had charge of about thirty children. We were courteously received — a bright boy of fifteen acting as interpreter. He was the only one who could speak English. They gave us some exhibitions of their knowledge of Arithmetic and Geography; the former on a black-board, the latter on a small globe. The English speaking boy did most of it, and was evidently the best scholar in school. He had a fine head and brilliant eye. We requested them to sing, but music was not in their course of instruction.

In the evening, we returned to the ship. Officers and men were busy all day Sunday, putting in freight. There was no public religious service on board.

On Monday, we visited Amingo Island, one of several lying in the bay. This one is owned by the Steamship Company, and is used as a burial ground. It is probably a mile in circumference, covered with wood and jungle, and rises abruptly some two hundred feet. We saw nearly a hundred graves on the steep hillside. Some were marked by marble

28 J HE GUN, ROD AND SADDLE.

slabs, a few, by monuments, but most, with wooden head-boards.

Near the narrow foot-path, on a tree, was a large ants' nest. I had noticed them from the cars, as we crossed the Isthmus, but supposed the\- were excrescences belonging to the trees. Making a way to it through the nettles and briers, I found numerous covered ways leading up the trunk of the tree to the main nest, and again from the nest in all directions along the limbs and branches. Not an ant was visible. When I broke through one of the covered ways, there appeared scores of the little black workers, and instead of fleeing in terror, they rushed out to punish the invader. The material used in construction seems to be a dark vegetable matter, firmly cemented together, about as thick as light card paper, and nearly as strong. To see how their dwelling was constructed, knowing that they had plenty of time to repair damages, I punched a hole in their house. It was a conglomerate mass of irregular cells, apparently communicating with each other. A furious host rushed to the breach, and it was well for me that they had no wings. On another tree near by, was a nest larger than a bushel basket. Their building on trees may be necessary to protect them from the heavy rains that fall in these latitudes, and their covered ways are probably for the same purpose.

On the beach was another curiosity. On the shore at Panama, when the tide was out, we saw hundreds of active little crabs flying for refuge to the holes and crannies in the rocks. Here there were no rocks to hide in. On the beach, however, were plenty of empty shells lying scattered about. So every crab took refuge in a shell just large enough to admit his body. Nay, further, he would travel with it on his back, and make vastly better speed than a turtle. Nor did the large ones alone have a monopoly of this good sense, but little fellows, not larger than a bee or spider, would rush around in a shell not so large as a lady's thimble. I took up one of medium size, and intended to pull him out. Not by any

30 l HE GUN, ROD AND SADDL1 .

means. I [e suffered himself to be torn asunder rather than yield.

Near the beach, in the crystal sea, was a magnificent jelly-fish, about a foot in diameter, and as beautiful in form as a flower. Our boatman took his oar and hoisted it upon the sand. It was at once a shapeless and disgusting mass. Like many other beautiful things in this world, they benefit us most the more we let them alone.

Returning to the ship, we rowed close past another island, hoping to have seen some monkeys. There are said to be a few in these islands, but we did not get a sighfof any. As we returned to the ship the sun was intensely hot, though it was the twenty-third of December. The thermometer on board stood at 8g°. Freight was still going in, and our ship was drawing twenty feet of water.

At 9 o'clock, next morning, the scows and lighters were cleared away, the anchor was weighed, a line was made fast to a buoy, our Chinese sailors tramped around the capstan singing their sailor song, the ship was headed