The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-05-20
HE FELT LIKE CRUsOE.
! NATURALIST FINDS AN
ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC.
Like Alexander seIkirk. lie Could Almost
Have Said. "Their Tameness Is
shocking to Me"-Inhab-
tied by Convicts.

George w. Dunn, the naturalist
and collector for the worlds fair and
different educational institutions and
museums, has been exploring the
little-known and curious island OF
Guadalupe.
lie tells a story in the San Fran
cisco Examiner almost as strange as
any by Defoe. The island lies out in
the Pacific. eighty miles OF the
Cover California coast, and almost
opposite Cape san Sebastian. IL is
thirteen miles long and four wide,an
rs made up of mountain aad valley
land. the mountains rising to a height
OF 1900 feet.
II went down there" said Mr..
Dunn, lin little seven-ton sloop
from san Diego, and after good
deal of trouble got ashore by jumping
on piece of projecting rock. / was
well rewarded by what saw, for
place | ever got into.
"The foliage was beautiful. The
island is partly open and partly
covered with trees, consisting Of
three kinds of palms, cypress, pines,
oaks and others. every one different
from those on the mainland. That
to me was curious thing. They
We're only eighty miles away, too.
81 had not been on the island long
till i ran into bevies of odd little
brown wrens. They swarmed every
where and were vely inquisitive.
When | sat down on rocks to rest
the wrens would come and light on
my boots and look into my face in
quiringly, as IL to ask what ! was
doing there. They were not afraid,
for they knew extremely little about
man.
The only human beings on the
island were about twenty refractory
MeXicans. who were there to look
after goats. Mexico uses it as Il sort
OF penal colony, and that is princi-
pally why they were there. They
We're not allowed to fire a gun. and
when they wanted any goats they
had to run them down or lasso them.
.'As these goats have been there
many years. have increased to 10000
and become a. wild as deer. you can
Judge what a feat it is to get one of
them. As / saw the fleet greasers
after them over the rocks was re-
minded strongly Of the experience of
Crusoe in Juan Fernandez. 1t was
equally as strange. and it was true.
1.-The MeXicans ran with wonderful
speed. Up mountain or down or
sidewise, it made no difference And
they almost always got their goat. I
saw them run over piles of rocks and
along the edges of prccipices.
They were just as sure-footed as
the goats. and nothing is supposed to
excel, if indeed to approach. a goat in
speed and ability to climb safely over
dangerous places
Sometimes they would get almost
upon them and then throw their las
soes. AT other times they would
simply run a goat down. There was
rarely ever more than one greaser
after goat. The horns and bones
of the dead goats are piled in places
many feet thick on the ground.
"Thcre are lot of wild cats down
there, too. Years ago somebody let
loose some domestic cats down there.
You know how fast they increase.
There are lots of them there now, and
everywhere over the hills you may
see both cats and goats. i suppose
the cats live on both birds and fish.
The climate is so advantageous. how
ever. that there is always varied an
imal life there.
lone other strange thing | found
in addition to the many | have al
luded to, was that If ] wanted any
water had to go up hill 10 get it,
The springs are all on top of the
mountains. You never find them
down by the shore.
while wandering about full of
wonder at what saw found an old
crater on top of the mountain chain.
midway in the island. The dead
crater was curious to behold. 1t was
about 800 feet across and almost that
deep. All about it was smooth and
broken lava. Piles Of basalt were
scattered here and there. Earth
quakes mad shaken and half closed
the crater.
The captain of my sloop was
having hard time outside. The
wind came up lively. and continued
to blow steadily. so that | couldn't
get aboard of her. The result was
had to stay on the island five days.
during which | had to live about all |
the time on the edible palms"