Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-12-10

From an elevation of $500 feet
l sent the seaplane spiraling down
ward to landing in Choke Berry
cove, a tiny harbor on San Glenn
ents western shore, where with
the hidden rocks just below the
, surface of the ocean swells 1t took
some careful maneuVering to set
the big bird down without knock
ing the bottom out of her. AS
"cut the gun" on motor, and peered
over the edge Of the cockpit upon
that tiny patch Of turquoise water
half a mile below, Choke Berry
cove looked about as big as wash
tub. Instinctively, / measured our
wings through the corners of my
goggles, then looked down at the
cove again, To all appearances we
could not land the seaplane there
without knocking down o noun
tain. But the cove was bigger than
it looked from half mile above
and two minutes after our ears had
begun tocrack from the increasing
atmospheric pressure, we had glid-
ed over the treacherous rocks at
the land end of a little bay, and
were slipping long over the surface
Of the sea with the ease of a surf
scooter coming in to roost,
1t was wild goat hunting that
had attracted us to San Clemente.
We might have gone there by boat
from Los Angeles, but with per-
fectly good seaplane at our dis
posal, and the ability to fly it, we
had chosen to wing our way across
the sixty miles of open ocean half
a mile above the ,Iaves and we did
it in AS minutes. She trip would
have taken us from six to- eight
hours by boat.
San Clemente is one Of the sew
eral large islands off the coast OF
Southern California that has seen
but slight development. 1t is USE
full to man only as a sheep range.
Cabrillo, the Spanish. navigator
who discovered the island in 1542,
pronounced the island worthless.
Cabrillo did one constructive piece
of work there, however. On
voyage to the island subsequent to
his discovery of it, he brought over
herd of Spanish goats, and lib
Grated them for the purpose OF
propagating a source of food sun
ply for mariners who might be
compelled to land on the island in
distress. The goats found favor
able habitat. Their numbers have
increased tremendously, so that to-
day the island is literally infested
with myriad herds OF wild noun
tain goats. Through countless gem
erations the animals have reverted
to the wild state until they have
lost nearly every trace of their
original domesticity. They are
now the widest of wild mountain
stock They mature enormous
horns, inhabit the toughest and
most inaccessible crags of the Isl
lands extraordinary ruggedness,
and are as fleet of hoof as deer
over ground where a man is scarce.
ly able to move.
Locating the Goats
After breakfast next morning we
donned our cartridge belts and
hunting knives, shouldered our
Winchesters, and set out up the
cactus strewn watercourse of the
canyon above our camp. 1t was
difficult going, and in spite Of our
best efforts to avoid them, we
gathered np cactus stickers until
we felt like human pin cushions
Less than half a mile from the
camp we dropped in our tracks in
the said wash when an unmistak-
able "Bab-ah -ah!" came echoing
around the face of the ridge along
the base OF which we We're plod-
ding. We wiggled into the cover
of clump of cactus, and began
combing the surrounding country
with our field glasses. A quarter
of mile away, and on the very
summit of precipitous crag, we
discovered the source Of the cry
1t was a lordly old billy goat, with
magnificent pair of recurved
horns, and a wealth of beard like
Moses wore. And, down on the
wall of the canyon, was herd OF
a score or more of smaller biIlies
nannies and half grown kids.
There was no way of approach
ing the herd without the old "senti.
mel goat" getting wise to us, so VIC
just remained hidden until he
hoped down off his perch. The
moment he jumped down our cam.
paign of action was outlined. We
would scale the 500 feet ridge in
front of us, work our way along
toward the goats along the sum- |