The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-14

ing region known as the West End. Here
San Miguel, elsewhere natural fortress
bounded by precipitous sides several hun
dred feet in height. slopes down into low
meadowy expanse, carpeted with green
and decked with flowers during all but the
short summer season.
The ground here is exceedingly fertile,
and long lines of mounds, literally filled
with human skeletons and ancient relics,
mark the site of the most important pre-
historic Indian villages found anywhere
on the coast.
The shore line of the north side is
marked by extensive petrified forests.
which appear to be bedded in what seems
a mixture OF volcanic ash and calcareous
earth.
The western terminus is Point Bennett,
a low rocky headland, and radiating
northward are lines of rocky reefs, with
now and then sharp iutting rocky islets
rising to considerable height above the
water. Flea Island is one of the most i'm
portant of these. In clear weather it can
be discerned twenty miles away. 1t is
about 600 yards long and has three minia-
lure promontories in line, the one near
est the land being $50 feet high, sharp and
pointed. The second is dome-shaped and
sixty feet high. The third and seward
one is forty feet high and rounded.
Between the two latter points the ISL
and is so low that the seas dash over it at
considerable elevation above the sea at low
tide. The entire islet is composed of bar
rem rock destitute of any vegetation.
There is little travel between the mainland
and San Miguel, and less between the
ranchhouse, located in the center of the
island, and the west end, where the only
other habitation on the island, the tiny
shelter of Jake Nidever, the son of the
original owner of the island, old Captain
Nidever, stands close to the shore.
Jake is a strange character, gentle soul,
not without some education, but so long
accustomed to solitary life that he has
grown silent and abashed in the presence
of men. Antonio Cabellero and Jake have
just returned from the island after stay
of months at the west end.
These men are veritable sea hunters, but
the chief game they seek is the sea otter,
whose skin when full grown is worth $500,
a small fortune to these men. Both are
grave, Qulcl ulel1, WuOSc WOIQ Cdu NC ILL
plicitly trusted, and they bring the story
of the violent upheaval on Flea Island,
which adds another chapter to the extra
ordinary changes taking place about San
Miguel and proves the continued travail of
the uncanny submarine powers.
On the 9TH of June Cabellero and Jake
rowed about among the little reefs and
islets, trying to steal on their game, which
is wary and elusive, but which is best
caught summing on the beaches or the
rocks near the waters edge. They visited
Flea Island and at low tide passed dry
shod across the rocks of the isthmus con-
Meeting the middle and outer knobs. They
observed nothing unusual then nor on
their return.
The next day they remained in the
of the day they heard terrific report like
the roar Of artillery. They specialized on
the cause, but could not account for it.
This report, they state, was also heard at
the ranchhouse, nine miles distant, by
Mrs. Devine, the housekeeper, and her two
sons-Wills, young man of 25, and Fran
els, boy of 13.
Being acquainted with the mammoth
commissions in the harbor, the chief of
which had occurred in March during their
absence from the island, the Devines
were much impressed by this deafening
tumult in the distance, speculated as to its
meaning and felt no little uneasiness about
it. They even went over to the brow of
the mesa overlooking Cuyiers Harbor, and
scanned the beach below, but could detect
no sign OF any abnormal occurrence.
The next day, the 9th of June, Nidever
and Cabellero again rowed out to Flea
Island in their customary pursuit Of game.
To their establishment they found the low
isthmus, connecting the two outer points,
some 200 yards in length and composed of
a rock so hard that it has for twenty years
resisted the action of wave and tide with
out perceptibly wearing away, literally
blown to fragments. Instead. of the solid
rockway, along which they had been ac-
customed to pass, their path was o mass
of broken rock extending at low tide as far
beneath the water as the eye could pene-
trate, and the character Of the force which