Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-07-29
ON GRIMALKIN ISLAND.
THOUSANDS or FELINES ON
AZ LONELY ROCK.
Where Pu5s In Boots Might Reisn-AE
Uncanny Cat Colony on the Coast
OF San I:usnI Ventura
Horrible Legends.


OF Ventura county is a rocky peak
which rises many feet above the Sea-
without verdure and watered only by
such lakeletS as gather in recesses OF
the cliffs during transforms 1t is un-
inhabitable and undesirable in every
way. since it affords no shelter to
vessels nor anything that might be of
value to their crews, says the San
francisco Examiner. Fishermen
touch in passing. but they are the
only men who ever bring news from
the bleak sentinel rock. The island
is about three-eighths of q square
miles IN area and stands frowning
menace to navigators who go down
into that part OF the sea in ships Its
position. seventy-hve miles from the
coast line. would make it suitable as a
summering place If any attractions
were there bat its only inhabitants
are cats. Where the cats came from.
or why they have thrived upon the
desolate rock are unanswerable
queries. They are there in numbers
and increasing
No one believes that evolution has
produced them from startish or that
they were generated spontaneously.
Even the budding scientists among the
fishermen Of Ventura admit that the
present stock of cats on tho island
must have had ancestors in kind The
only tenable theory, and that one
which finds general acceptance is that
the toms and tabby cats from some
fishing smack which touched at Santa
Barbara island must have gone ashore
and been left when the smack sailed
away. Common sailors and fisher
men the world over have. in fancy,
.peopled unknown shores with all sorts
'of strange monsters and distorted men.
and Santa Barbara island. in common
with other rarely visited spots has
been wreathea about with garlands of
seadog fancy until the superstitious
have come TO look upon it as an I'M
: canny place. Sailors tell OF horrible
phantoms that SAIL through the air
from pinnacle to pinnacle of the rocks,
singing as they fly. But it s all cats.
The cats do the singing and if there
is any murmuring the cats purr that
into the eagerly receptive sailors
ears Fish are in plenty about the
! island but some Of the fishermen have
! fancied that certain whitish objects to
| be seen when near the beach on the
southern side are human skulls. and
other OBJ. ects are thought TO be the
bones of human castaways who may.
perchance have. after death been
gnawed by the cats
When all the foolishness of the fish,
ermen is put aside there yet remains
the curious fact that the island is
thickly infested by cats of all colors.
They manage to live by eating such
fish as may be washed upon the
beaches or among the rocks and find
the young and eggs of sea- birds at
certain seasons. An occasional feast
OF flesh is carried TO them. in the car
cass of porpoise killed from some
passing vessel or in the carrion re-
fuse from ad AGENT whaling stations
drifted to the island by tidal currents.
A precarious existence it is at best
and the wonder is small that the cats
are gaunt and eager. They troop
about their island. and sometimes in
dulge in general engagements after
which the survivors devour the killed
and wounded.
Six years ago two fishermen of
Ventura were lost at sea A year
later another fisherman. Fazzio by
name. was carried by adverse winds
near Santa Barbara Island. ald when
he at last escaped being wrecked and
returned to his home he told CHASTITY
tale OF snowy skulls on the island
beach and wreckage from a fishing
sloop among the rocks He fancied
the skulls must be those OF his missing
friends. He told OF angry. screeching
cats that gathered on the rocks and
apparently waited for his body to be
cast ashore, and his story soon became
a legend OF the island.
Shooting parties have gone to the
island and wasted ammunition in
practice upon the bowling beasts. but
without diminishing the number
materially.
The lonely island is still in possess
ion OF the pussies and passing sailors
piously cross themselves as they hear
awful voices coming up through the
night out OF the depths apparently.