The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-16
LONELY LITTLE ISLES
The Still SentinelS Of TodOs
Santos Bay.
THE HOME OF MANY UGLY BIRDS.
An Old Time Smuggling
Station.

BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico, June II, 1889
Especial correspondence of THE HER
ADJ Near the outer rim of Todos Santos
bay is group Of islands, which are also
named after all the saints These still sen
tries OF silent land''-always yelled in
purple haze, or clothed with misty blue,
lifting ragged cliffs from 40 to 400 feet
straight out of the water-Offer a standing
invitation to the idle and curious. A year
or two ago, when the affairs of the
International company were -four
ishing and the adjacent mainland
was thronged with sight seers
and spectators, these islands were fire.
quently invaded by pleasure parties; but
since the melancholy days have come and
the boom is dead, there are few pioneers
now in the discouraged community of En-
senada.
There is boat passage between the
| islands, leading to Il romantic little harbOr,
rock-bound on three sides. In years not
| long passed, this was a smuggling station,
affording
A CONVENIENT HIDING PLACE
for contraband goods, from where they
could be taken to shore, at various points,
in small quantities. The valuable seals
that swarm the rocks were also perpetual
| inducement. In the utter desOlatlOn of the
place these animals could be slaughtered
by thousands, regardless of legal restric-
| lions, and their skins cured on the spot
and kept till ready for shipment.
Slliruing the SHORES i'll IL row-0oat, we
dodge beneath Towering arch
ways, snatching vainly at strange
flowers and tempting sea-ferns.
The barren heights are covered
with Shiny ocean grOWths, and species of
cacti wriThe, serpent like, down to the
water, offering gorgeous blossoms, beneath
which tiny thorns are hidden that
! tester the poisoned flesh. There is no sign
of human life here, but nature, has her
sWarming millions, above the waters and
below them. Birds! 1t would be hard to
find such clouds of them elsewhere Every
inch of ground and every foot of space is
pre- empted by a feathered squatter or
| flyer, and the sea beneath is literally
crowded with its various denizens.
| Most noticeable among the winged tribes,
because so Zig and awkward are the peli-
cans which find here the safest of hiding
| places. So completely covered is the
ground with their nests that you can
hardly put your foot down without tread
| ing upon egg shells. Theirs are the most
slOvenly OF bird-abodes being mere
lunches of tangled sea-weed. The infant
pelican, in its thin coat Of snowy down, is
degree less ugly than its parents-or could
be were it not for
ITS ASTONISHING STRETCH OF MOUTH
which is always sprawled for food to such
an extent as to nearly split the little crea-
ture from stem to stern. Very busy must
poor Mrs. Pelican be to fl the yawning
vacuums of her numerous progeny! They
eat nothing but fish, which the adult birds
catch by lowering over the waters and
plunging in head first when the prey ap-
pears Beneath the enormously long,
| fiattencd and hOOk-shuped bill is a pouch
OF naked skin, in which they store up food
for future use. bringing it forth when re
CURED. either Tor their own eating or that
of the babies. The parents are said to carry
water to their yOung,as well as food, in these
convenient sacks: and hence, probably,
comes the ancient fable of the pelican
nourishing its offspring with its own blood.
| Observing closely. one sees that they have
! habit of pressing the bill upon the breast
doubtless the more easily to empty the
pouch-and is reminded of that favorite de-
vice of Heraldry, wherein the ungainly
bird, represented in the act of woundlng
herself for Il e benefit of her young, is
| called "a Pelican in Her Piety.n
Sailing southwark, about twelve miles
from the islands Of all the saints, we come
to a crCscent-Shaped cove, with deep
water close to shore, between rocks, high,
precipitous and forbidding. This is ano-
Their whaling station, oncet the most famous
between Puget Sound and Panama, but
long since abandoned The village and
mission of Santa Tomas lies inland from
this point about sixteen miles. To reach it
from anchorage, one is obliged to Chamber
over the coast rocks a mile or more, till he
comes to the place where the Tomas river
rushes into the sea; after which he may
follow the course of this stream to the VII
lage
Going by carriage road, the distance
from
ENsENADA TO SANTA TOMAS
is tbirty-five miles, via San Carlos and the
Maneadero valley. 1t is delightful two
days trip, through a wilderness OF wild
flowers, infested by the biggest snakes that
ever waved a warning rattle. There are
purng streams and messy banks, and ro-
mantle groves of wide-spreading oaks and
mahogany trees, and miles of oX-5ye DAISIES
nodding above the carriage tOp-but the
trail of the serpent is over them all, and
1.-THE tramp of the coming Millions which
somebody heard on the summit of the
Rockies, will have to come good deal
nearer to these waste places before the
WllGSlluS anu IdGl1AIS SLDOllSLl4So WILL DC
sensibly diminished.
So narrow is the valley Of Saint Thomas
that in some places it can scarcely be called
more than "a gorge, but if ever the old
hymn anent Sweet Fields Arrayed in
Living Green applied to any spot On
earth, it is right here in this isolated place.
shut in on all sides by sea-encompassed
heights The river furnishes water enough
to supply both villages and rancheros in
this arcadian vale; and by iudicious irriga
ton, the frnits and grains of both tropic
and temperate zones flourish wonderfully
side by side. Though Mother Earth is so
generously inclined, giving also an adun-
dance of such small game as quail, snipe,
duck, etc, besiees river and sea food
in the shape of fish, CLANS and turtles
strange to say, the tawny- skinned follow
ers of the good Saint Thomas
prefer such an un-Arcadian ''meat
victuas' as pork and rattle-snakes to any
other dietl The: Indians make regular
business of killing the rattlers, which they !
turn to profit in three ways. First having
''tried the game" they cut off the head,
which contains the deadly poison, and care
fully bury it. Then they hang up his
cpoL-acbin and daftlV StriD off the Skiu-it |