Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-06-22
LIFE In LOWER CALIFORNIA.
all SAINTS, ISLAND AND 1HE VILLAGE
OF sANTO TOMAS.
The Discouraged Community of Ensenada
The Pleasure of Doing Nothing
An Arcadian Family.
Special Correspondence Of the REooED-UEIoN.
BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico, 1889.

alter all the SAINTS. these still SentrIes
of a silent land always yelled in purple
haze or clothed with misty blue, lifting
ragged cliffs from forty to four hundred
feet straight out of the water-offer a
standing invitation to the idle and curl
Gus. 4 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 frequently invaded by
pleasure parties but since the melancholy
days have come and the boom is dead,
there are few picnicsers now in the dis
couraged community at Ensenada.
There is a boat passage between the
islands, leading tosa romantic little harbor,
rock-bound on three sides. In years not
long past this was smuggling station, af-
fording convenient hiding-place for con-
traband goods, whence they could be taken
to shore, at various points, in small guam
titles. The valuable seals that swarm the
rocks were also perpetual inducement.
In the utter desolation Of the place those
animals could be slaughtered by thou
sands regardless Of legal restrictions, and
their skins cured on the spot and kept till
ready for shipment.
Skirting the shores in a row-boat, we
dodge beneath towering archways, snatch
ing vainly at strange flowers and tempting
sea-ferns. The barren nights are covered
with Shiny ocean-grOW tbs, and a species of
cacti wTithes, 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 swarm
ing millions, above the waters and below
them. Birds It would be hard to find
such clouds Of them elsewhere. Every
inch Of ground and every foot of space is
pre-empted by feathered squatter or
hyeT-and the sea beneath is literally
crowded with its various denizens. Most
notable among
THE WINGED TRIBES,
Because so big and awkward, are the peli-
cans, which find here the safest ofhreeding-
places; so completely covered is the ground
with their nests that you can hardly
put your foot down without treading upon
egg-shells. Theirs are the most slovenlv
of bird abodes, being mere punches of
tangled sea-weed. The infant pelican, in
Its thin coat of snowy down, is degree
of less ugly than It's parents-or would 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
creature from stem to stern. Very busy
must poor Mrs. Pelican be to FIJI the
yawning vacuums Of her numerous pro
geny They eat nothing but fish, which
the adult birds catch by lowering over the
water and plunging in head first when the
prey appears. Beneath the enormously
long, fiattened and hook-shaped bill is a
pouch of naked skin, in which they
store up food for future use, bringing it
forth when required, either for 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 10 empty the pouch-ahd is re-
minded of that favorite device of heraldrv.
wherein the ungainly bird, represented in
the act of wounding herself for the benefit
of her young, is called A Pelican in Her
Piety"
Sailing southwest about twelve miles
from the islands Of all the Saints, we come
to a crescent-shaped cove, with deep
waters close to shore, between rocks high.
PERCEPTIONS and forbidding. This is
another old whaling station, once the most
famous between Puget Sound and Panama.
but long since abandoned. The village
and mission of Santo 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
Santo Tomas river rushes into the sea
after which he may follow the course of
the stream to the village.
Going by carriage road, the distance
FROM ENsENADA TO sANTo TOMAS
Is thirty five miles via San Carlos and the
ManeaderO valley 1t is delightful two
days trip, through 4 wilderness of wild
flowers, infested by the biggest snakes that
ever raised warning rattle There are
purling streams and messy banks, and TO-
mantle groves of wide-spreading oaks and
mahogany trees, and miles of ox-eye daisies
nodding above the carriage top-but the
trail of the serpent is over them all, and
"the tramp Of the coming millions" which
somebody heard on the summit of the
Rockies, will have to come a good deal
nearer TO these waste plains before the
wriggling and rafting aborigines will be
sensibly diminished.
So narrow is the valley of Saint
Thomas that in some places it can scarcely
be called more than a mountain gorge:
but if ever the old hymn anent 'ikset
fields arrayed in living green" apiSs~d
70 any spot on earth, it is right here in
this isolated place, shut in on all sides bv
sea-encompassed nights The river iur-
nIshes water enough to supply both viii
Layers and rancheros in this Arcadiap
vale; and by judicious irrigation, the fruits
OF both tropic and temperate zones flourish
side by side. Though Mother Earth
IS so generously inclined. giving
also an abundance of such small
game as quail snipe, duck, etc
besides river and sea-iood in the
form Of fish, CLAIMS and turtles
strange TO say, the tawny skinned followers
of tie good Saint. Tomas prefer such I'M
Arcadian meat victuals" as pork and
rattleSnakes to any other diet The In
dianS make a regular business of killing
the rattlers, which they turn to profit i6
three ways. First, having "treed the
game" they cut of the head, which con-
tains the deadly poison, and carefully bury
IT. Then they hang up his snakeship and
deity strip of the skin-it having become
fad among visitors to Lower California
20 carry home rs many cured snake-skins
as they can get hold of, to keep as curiosi-
ties, or TO wear for belts or hat-bands One
can buy them beautifully cured, averaging
FIVE feet long and six inches wide when
spread out flat, or left whole and stuffed
for dollar apiece and very beautiful
they are, with their white diamonds
clearly defined on dull brown or glossy
black ground. The oil land each good
conditioned snake contains a great deaD
sells readily at the rate of two dollars per
ounce and then the thick. white al