The morning call., 1892-10-30
ELK And ANTELOPE.
They Once Roamed the Bay
Shores and Valleys.
BIG GAME THAT Is GONE.
Now Hunters Bag Larks and Squirrels and
May Soon Have to Chase Jackrsbbits
and Aussseed Bags
BIG GAME THAT Is GONE.
Written for The MORNING CALL.

Written for The MORNING CALL
Now that the season is really omen and
the game fairly plentiful, every ferry that
crosses the bay these lovely autumn DAYS
carries among its passengers a group Of
hunters. with their traps sluDg across
shoulders or tucked under arms, and the
inevitable settlers. growing defiance at
each other and the world. Up in the coun-
try the woods are full of these fellows. 1t
seems as if every man who can borrow a
canvas coat well studded with rivets. find a
gun and coax dog to follow him has taken
to the hills. Everything is game with them.
from lark to grOund-squirrel, and the
pop, pop, popping of their shotguns and
smo0thb0res is heard on every hand, scar
ing The horses and startling the peaceful
kline patiently nibbling the stubble on the
hillsides and in the valley pastures.
A faVorite hunting ground for our city
sDOrtsmen is still that portion of the Contra
Costa hills extending from Altamont, re-
Gently the scene of the great murder mys-
terry, south. and as far down the valley as
Gilroy Game is still plentiful through
there despite the inrOads civilization is max
ing upon its preserves. There are deer back
in the hills, quail in every brush, jackrab-
bits skitting through the fields, and even
now and then fat brown bear One Of
these gentry was shot not long ago back of
Mission San Jose, but he is the first that
has been seen there in years. Bears used TO
be more plentiful than agreeable in that
vicinity. II IS not 80 very many years since
the gay caDaileTCs useq 10 sally forth to
Shoot them ~ the very streets Of the VIII
lage, or lasso them from horseback and
Jerk" Their bears meat before they killed il.
har - 70 In pkcF
marshes around Alviso and Albrae, though
these birds are getting very scarce, and
ducks apieniy frequent the agOOns and low
shores of the bay every winter. Local
hunters complain rather bitterly Of the city
gun clubs that have snapped up the best
hunting grounds everywhere along the bay
shore. IN Sonoma, SolanO, Marin, San
MateO, Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
They declare that this rural huntsman,
when he desires days sport, has first to
have a days journey from home before lie
finds place where lie can fire off a gun
without hitting warning notice against
hunting over that section. AS to the plenti-
fulHess of warning notices the complaint is
true, but nevertheless the local p0thunter,
when he starts on days cunning, generally
gets home at night with a well-tiled bag
from which it may be inferred that he
knows thing or two the gun clubs have
not yet become posted about.
Those who 90 cunning to supply the Chi
16S0 market can Sill UQu an occasional Wild
cat In Contra Costa or the Calayeras, and
around Oakland. last winter, couple of
California lions were often seen awaiting
the advent of some plucky marksman who
wants handsome rug or two. These creatures
are almost extinct, however, and the only
California lion at present known TO be up
in those hills is Joaquin Miller, who is
roaring very mildly and melOdiously these
days, and spends much of his time listening
TO the gentle patter of that artificial summer
rainstorm he has contrived and 50 arranged
that he can at any time send its sivery
drops patterlDg down upon his roof No,
hunting days are not what they used to be,
particularly in Alameda County. There
used to be some famous hunters there.
among the American settlers.
The Indians never hunted big game, but
cared only TO catch fish and such small birds
and animals as they could trap. These
abOTigines had not even canoes but naYi-
gated the streams and the bay on bundles Of
Jules dashed together and pointed at both
ends. On these irail crafts they would Yen-
ture cut to sea in pursuit Of the fish on which
they subssted.
When the Spanish came they found game
in abundance-and in his early history of
California Father Palou, our first historian.
relates OF the region now known as Alameda
County that in the valley of San Jose the
Portala party, who came up from Monterey
by land under Captain Juan Bautista
looking for San Francisco, saw some ami
mails which they took for cattle, though they
could not imagine where they came from
and. supposing they were wild and would
scatter the tame ones which they were driv-
ing, the soldiers made after them and sue
ceeded in killing three, which were so large
that mule could with difficulty carry Que,
being the size of an OK, and with horns like
those OF deer, but so long that their tips
were eight feet apart He also adds that
1.-The soldiers made observation that they
c0OI0 mot against fha wind he
of their monstrOus antlers."
Reading this account 1t is not difficult to
recognize that these creatures were elk,
some few OF which remained even so late as
the coming of the Americans into Vallejo.
Bidwell stated that he saw bands of elk
swimming in the Carguinez Straits and
feeding upon the pastures along the shore.
Vallejo saw them in the San Jose Valley,
and traditions of them still remain among
the old hunters, who heard of them as boys, or
even saw them They used to travel hundreds
OF miles, from pasture to pasture, among
the low green isles in the summer tules and
along the rich willow bottoms in the valleys
OF the coast range. j. Z. Adams tells US that
he hunted elk near Pacheco Pass about 1852
ana saw there band of fifteen. 1t is proba-
bic, though, that there is not another one
left in the State, although their first cousin.
The muledeer, is still to be found in some
parts of Southern California.
The deer that have now retreated to the
Businesses of the mountains
around the bay were once "thick as bees"
all through the foothills and the valleys
Ihe hunters thinned them out however
and the gradual encrOachment OF the Span
Sh cattle upon the valley and upland pas
.Ures finally drove them back to the noun
aims for food and safety. Tradition still
emains of big band of antelope that at
me time, and within the memory Of Ameri-
IAN settlers, were at home in Corral Hollow,
! canyon extending back from San Joaquin
PLAIN and opening into LlvermUTe Valley
north Of the present town of Livermore.
The antelope, though, preferred large plains,
md there were never so many Of them in
he Livermore and Santa Clara valleys as
'Ound the broad acres of the San JOAQUIN
The big game has nearly all passed away,
)ut the country that remains must still be
huntsman's paradise for many year TO
come. 1t is not all Of days sport TO Kill.
md even though the hunter through those
ILLS returned empty-handed, which he can
ungsful of pure air, such heartful of vivi-
led blood, such bundle of strengthened
md refreshed muscles and secured such
lear head and hearty appetite, that he will
'e well repaid for his trip.
The game. such as ii is, wont last forever.
nd probably in few years we will be re-
ueed to chasing iackrabbts, or even
bags across country on bob
allied jumpers and calling this hunting, but
lot just yet thanks, and when the time
ONES TO do that why the old hunters won't
10 it. but will hang up bags and guns and go
nut by the graves of the good old settlers
nj pointers and spin yarns Of the good cid
ays when they traciped, gun in hand,
mong the bills or through the swamps for
brace OF canvasbacks or amountaiB deer.