USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 48
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Amongs the ducks of California are the mallard and canvas- back. The meat of the latter is not of so fine a flavor as in the Eastern States, probably because it does not here find the wild celery upon which it feeds along the streams of the Middle States.
Cygnus Americanus -. American Swan - Length fifty-five inches, wing twenty-two inches, tail feathers twenty in number, mature birds white; young, brown legs and bill black.
C. Buccinator-Trumpeter Swan-So called from its note like a trumpet, which it emits when flying over the country, usually at night. It is somewhat larger than the first named, its length being sixty inches, wing twenty-four inches, number of tail feathers twenty-four. When grown it is pure white, but its bill and legs are black.
Anser Hyperboreus-Snow Goose-Its color is pure white, except the tips of its wings, which are a light black. It has red bill and legs.
A. Gambelli-The White Fronted Goose-So named from its white forehead. It measures twenty-eight inebes from tip of bill to tip of tail; length of wing over sixteen inches. Its color is grayish; its bill and legs are red. It has six- teen tail feathers.
A. Frontalis-Brown Fronted Goose-Similar to preceding, only its forehead is brown instead of white.
Bernicla Canadensis-The Canada Goose-Generally called the honker. It is thirty-five inches long; wing eighteen inches. Its bill, feet, neck and head are black, while its upper parts are brownish, and its lower parts are not so dark.
B. Cucopareia-White-cheeked Goose-Also called in Califor- nia the China goose. It is much like the preceding, thougb darker and smaller.
B. Hutchingsii-Hutching's Goose-Similar to the honker, but only thirty inches long.
B. Nigricans-The Black Brant-Very dark in color ; length twenty-nine inches, wing fourteen inches.
There are nine species of wild ducks common to this valley. They feed on the young tules and eat immense numbers of
acorns, furnished by the numerous California white oaks for those species that are fond of them. 1. The brown tree duck, twenty inches long, wing nine inches. 2. The mallard, or green-head, from which our common farm duck originated; its average length is twenty-three inches, its wing eleven inches. 3. The sprigtail, or pintail, with a long, narrow bill and pointed tail. 4. Tbe green-winged teal. 5. The red-breasted teal. 6. The shoveler or spoonbill. 7. The gray dluck, or gadwall. 8. The American widgeon, or baldpate. 9. The wood, or sum- mer duck, noted for its variegated and exquisitely beautiful plumage.
Many of tbe geese and ducks pass the winter in California, where they find an abundance of food in the grain-fields and the tules.
SILVER PELICAN.
Quite a rare specimen of the pelican tribe, says the Express, was killed on the plains, near tbe San Joaquin River, by Mr. Keitb, and brought into town by Mr. H. W. Hoagland. Tbe feathers of this remarkable bird are exceedingly fine and glossy, and are of a silver color. It measured cight feet six inches from tip to tip of wing, and about five feet from the beak to tail. Old hunters say it is the first bird of the kind ever caught or seen in this portion of California.
The following from the Express will show to strangers how very plenty are the geese :-
" Mr. Levy Smith, a gentleman who follows hunting for a living in this county, and who is at present engaged in that business on Miller & Lux's ranch, on the west side, killed, tbe other day, one hundred and forty geese at two shots, discbarg- ing both barrels of his gun at each shot. Mr. Smith is the most successful hunter of which we have any knowledge, hav- ing witbin the last five months killed and shipped to San Fran- cisco over nine thousand head of gecse and ducks.
"W. W. Abbott, of Plainsburg, and George Powell, of this place, went on a hunt the other day, and, after being out two days, came back with two bundred ducks and fifty geese."
Fishes of the Rivers and Streams.
WE give the names of several of the fishes found in the San Joaquin and its tributaries, and in the mountain streams. The most valuable of these is the California salmon.
SALMONIDE-Salmo Scouleri, S. quimat, S. Spectabilis. The salmon family have as characteristics, according to Rich- ards, Storer, and others, fusiformn body, large head, pronı- inent teetli, one anterior dorsal fin, small adipose fin, the caudal fin large, scales small.
The salmon are born in the rivers, but go down to the sen, where they spend part of every year. They commence tu enter the bay of San Francisco in November, and continue to come in for three or four months. They ascend the Sacra- mento and San Joaquin Rivers and some of their smaller trib- utaries, deposit their spawn, and in June go out to sea again. They come in lean and go out lean, but in the late winter and early spring they are fat.
The female salmon, having found a suitable place, uses her nose to dig a trench in the sand about six feet long, a foot wide,
226
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
and three inches deep, and having deposited her spawn in it, throws a little sand over it with ber tail, and departs, leaving her eggs to be hatched and the offspring to be fed as best they can. In the month of May the young salmon are found on their way to the sea, from three to six inches long. It is sup- posed tbat the salmon always returned to the river in which they were born,
The Indians everywhere in California made a practice of catching salmon in the season. They would often, in the large streams, construct a sort of dam by driving poles into the water, and force the fish into one passage. Then they would spear them with unerring certainty, judging where to strike the spear by the ripple of the water made by the fish in passing. In this sport the " braves " were quite willing to engage, hut the care and curing of the fish, by drying in the sun, was the work of the squaws. Immense quautities were cured, and it was a staple article of food, and carried about with them from place to place.
ESCOIDE-Pikes. Cypriandic-Catostamus Occidentplis; lead color above, yellowish or white beneath; length, twelve . inches.
Lavinia Compressus-Reddisb brown above, yellowish be- neath, silver-grey on sides.
FARIO-Sometimes called hy fishermen salmon trout. Aurora-Silver-gray above, yellowish on side and heneath. Tsuppitch-Common trout.
Stellatus-Back olive; heneath light, yellowish-white ; head, body and fins, black spotted;
SALAR-Brook and creek trouts.
S. Lewisii-Head, body and fins spotted; belly yellowish- white, yellow dot on abdominal scales; found only in the · mountains.
SALAR IRIDEA .- Among the fresh-water fishes the most important is the brook trout, which is found in all the mount- ain streams of the State, and offers fine sport for fly-fishing. It not unfrequently grows to weigh two pounds, and, if report is to be believed, sometimes reaches ten and twelve pounds In appearauce and flavor it is similar to the trout of other countries ..
The most common fish found in the mountain streams are the salmon, salmon-trout, brook-trout, lake-trout, percb, white- fish, sucker, chub, and two varieties of eels ..
Reptiles and Insects.
THE'snakes of California are not large, numerous, or remark- able. Only one of them, the rattlesnake, is poisonous. Two kinds of rattlesnake, long striped, brown, pilot, green, purple, small garter, milk, and water snakes.
The scorpion is found in the warmer portions of the county, but is not abundant.
Tarantulas are common in Stanislaus, Mariposa, Merced, Fresno, and Tulare Counties. They belong to the same genus with the spiders, but the body grows to be three inches long and an inch wide, and the entire length from end to end of outstretched legs is five inches. The body and legs are covered with a silky, brown hair. The tarantula eats little insects of various kinds, but, unlike most other spiders, has no net.
It lives in a hole in the ground, not much larger than itself wben pressed into the smallest compass, and the hole is covered by a little door on a hinge, which closes by its own weight, or by a spring. In the top of the door are several little holes, into which the tarantula can insert its claws when it wishes to enter; and so quick are its motions when terrified, that it often disappears suddenly under tho eyes of men pursuing it, and they have great difficulty in finding its hiding-place. The door fits tightly, and is larger on the outside, so that it never sticks fast. The bite of the tarantula is poisonous, but not fatal-or at least has never, so far as we know, proved fatal in California. It rarely bites men; and flees when it discovers their approach.
The tarantulas have dangerous enemies in several species of wasps, the females of which kill them by thrusting eggs into their bodies. When the larvæ of the wasp are hatched, they make food of the carcass. So soon as the tarantula dies, the wasp drags it to her hole, usually the deserted burrow of a sper- mophile, where she may collect twenty or thirty dead taran- tulas in one season. There are three different species of these wasps; one kind is hlue, another yellow. Sometimes the wasp darts down repeatedly upon the tarantula, and does not touch him except with her egg-planter, depositing an egg at every thrust. On other occasions the two grapple, and the wasp coutinues to insert her eggs until the tarantula dies. The edi- tor of a newspaper in Mariposa thus describes the killing of a tarantula: "Some of our readers may have heard of the tenacity with which the venomous tarantula is pursued by an inveterate enemy, in the form of a huge wasp-invariahly resulting in the defeat and death of the former. We were an eye-witness to one of these conflicts last week, while on a ram- ble among the adjacent hills. A slight buzzing was heard in the air, and in a moment a wasp passed near, hovering on the wing over his trembling victim, the much-dreaded tarantula. Like some bird of prey, the wasp remained thus poised for a moment, and then, quick as thought, darted down upon the enemy, and stung him many times with great rapidity. The tarantula, smarting under the pain, began a retreat, with all the speed of which he was capable; hut the wasp hung over him with wonderful tenacity, and again and again struck him with his venomous sting. Gradually the flight of the tarantula became slower and more irregular, and at length, under the repeated thrusts of bis conqueror, he died, biting the grass with his terrible fangs."
There are four kinds of lizards, horned toads, common toads frogs, etc.
Of insect life there is too great a variety to be specified in the limit allowed us .; Of all the kinds which are largely rep- resented here, are found all those pests of vegetation and man- ufactured fabrics. Grasshoppers, crickets, etc., are the com- mon terms.
' Various curculios sting fruit, leaves, branches, and roots, and deposit eggs which hatch into worms,
BRIDAL VAIL FALLS, YO SEMITE.
227
SCENIC GRANDEUR OF YOSEMITE,
Far-Famed Yosemite.
NO HISTORY of Merced could be called complete witbout some notice of this world-renowned valley, which brings people through the territory of Merced, and may almost be considered as a part of the county.
To attempt a portrayal of the sublime scenes of this unique and wondrous formation, would be suggestive of an effort to compass the impossible. One may tell of its ver- tical and tree studded walls; of its lofty and picturesque waterfalls; of its deep and boulder- strewn cañons; of its defiant and cloud- crowned mountain tops; but, after all, they are nothing but hard and unfeeling facts. Yo Semite cannot be de- scribed !
The discovery of this valley has been partly written up in our arti- cle on the Indians of this section, on page 191, who used the valley as a stronghold.
WHO FIRST ENTERED THE VALLEY.
It seems settled that the company in pur- suit of Indians, under Major Savage, were tbe first wbites who en- tered the valley in 1851, and L. H. Bunnell, in a work issued in Chicago in 1880, entitled " Dis- covery of Yo Semite," claims that he suggested the name Yo Semite while in the valley in 1851: "Different names were proposed. I proposed we give the valley the name Yo-sem-i-ty, and by so doing would perpetuate the name of the Indian tribe who had occupied it. John O'Neal, a rollicking Texan of our company, vociferously announced to the whole company the subject of our discussion, by saying: 'Hear ye! Hear ye! A vote will he taken now to decide uvon what name shall he given to tbis valley.' The reason for calling it Yo-sem-i-ty being explained, on a viva voce vote was adopted."
VERNAL FALLS, YOSEMITE,
S. F. Grover, now of Santa Cruz, was among the first who entered the Yo Semite Valley. A party of gold-seekers, consisting of Messrs. Grover, Tudor, Aitch, Sherman, Bahcock, Peabody, and Rose, entered this valley May 28, 1852. They were prospecting, when they were suddenly attacked by the Indians, who used bows and arrows, Sherman and Tudor were killed by arrows. The party partially secreted them- selves uuder a projecting rock at the side of the majestic walls of that remarkable locality. There they re- mained, fighting the Indians until sundown, and at midnight fol- lowed the base of the hluff, and finally reached the top at sunrise, where they could overlook the valley. Here they could see about 200 Indians around their camp-fires, This party, on their way to Yo Semite, and also on their return, May 30, 1852, passed through the Mariposa Big Tree Grove. These immense trees attracted their attention, and some of them were measured. This was supposed to he the first party of wbites who visited tbis grove .*
In 1853 eight men entered the valley from the north fork of the Merced. No visitors, says Bunnell's History, it is believed, entered the valley in 1854. Bunnell is mistaken as Grizzly Adams and a Mr. Solan hunted there in the spring of that
year. See life of Adams on another page.
In 1855 Hutchings and his companions visited it, and tbroug his magazine gave the valley notoriety.
In 1856 it was visited by ladies from San Francisco and Mariposa.
In the year 1864 there were only 164 visitors; in 1865, 276; in 1866, 382; in 1867, 435, and gradually increasing until in 1875 there were 3,000.
* This paragraph is from Elliott's "History of Santa Cruz County."
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
FIRST WHITE WOMAN IN THE VALLEY.
The first white woman that ever visited Yo Semite was a Madame Gautier, the housekeeper at the Franklin House, Mariposa. A few days afterwards Mrs. J. Neil, of Mariposa, and Mrs. Thompson visited it. The next ladies were of the " Den- man High School " party of San Franeiseo.
WHAT IS YO SEMITE.
Yo Semite is a deep fissure or mountain-walled gorge, in the very heart of the great chain of the Sierra Nevada, within ahout twenty-five miles of its topmost summit, and lying ahout 150 miles duc east from San Francisco. It is a little over seven miles in length, hy from half a mile to a mile and a quarter in width, exelusive of the dehris or talus under its walls. Its total area, according to the Report of the Commis- sioner of the General Land Office at Washington, comprises 8,480 acres, 3,109 of which is meadow land. The entire grant to the State, however, was 36,111 acres, and includes one mile back of the edge of the precipice, throughout its whole cir- cumferenee. The altitude of the bottom, or meadow of the valley, is 4,000 feet ahove the sca ; while on either side of it the walls-which are of a beautiful gray granite, of many shades-rise to the height of from 3,300 to 5,300 fcet ahove the meadow, and are of almost every conceivable shape. Over these lofty walls leap numerous waterfalls, from 350 to 3,330 feet in height, and in forms of inexpressihle heauty, that change with every instant, or are changed by every breeze that plays and toys with them. To gain an approximate notion of the prodigious seale on which the Yo Semite has heen formed. re- memher that Mount Washington rises only to the height of these eliffs ; if he has crossed on the Central Pacifie, let bim realize that when on the highest pass, if the mountain could be cleft to the level of the sea, there would he about such a ehasm as that over which the South Dome looks; or, that the Yo Semite fall is about nine times the height of Niagara.
THE BEAUTIFUL MERCED.
A remarkably picturesque and beautiful river-the Merced- full of delicious trout, and clear as crystal, runs through it, and then roars and plunges down an almost impassable cañon, entering the San Joaquin River ahout sixty miles south of the city of Stoekton. Patches and stretches of fertile meadow,' covered with ferns, flowers and grasses, in almost endless beauty and variety, open at intervals on hoth sides of the stream, their margins set with flowering shrubs which, in early spring-time, fill the air with perfume. Deciduous trees, such as oak, cot- tonwood, alder and maple ; and evergreen oak, pine, cedar, silver-fir and spruce form picturesque groups over valley and river, in places presenting long vistas that seem like frames to many glorious landscapes. The general course of Yo Semite is northeasterly and southwesterly-a fortunate circumstance indeed, as it permits the delightfully invigorating northwest
hreeze, fresh from the Pacific, to sweep pleasantly through it, and keep it exceedingly temperate on the hottest of days, and allows the sun to look down into it from six o'clock in the morning until half-past four in the afternoon, in summer, in- stead of only an hour or two were it otherwise.
· EL CAPITAN.
No picture hy pen or hrush can ever convey an idea of the vastness of the great weather-stained, scar-faced El Capitan. There is no hetter way to convey even an inadequate idea of it than by taking some familiar object, as a church spire for instanee, for comparison. Let the reader then take as a unit of measurement a church spire, say 200 feet in height. Put your- self upon the curhstone opposite and run your eye along it to the top.
Fix that measure in your mind. Now go back a little way and double church and spire -- fancy yourself looking upward to the top of two such spires, 400 feet. Have you fixed your dis- tance ? Then go hack still farther and double the height of your two spires-imaginc yourself looking up to the top of the fourth spire, piled one ahove another. There is a distance of 800 feet straight up. Take a little time to think it over. Then go hack still farther, to save something of the effect, and double up again-count them up from the hottom-eight spires high -- 1,600 feet. Rest a little, and, if you can, familiarize yourself with the thought and with the distance. Now for the last leap in this perpendicular geometrical progression-double the whole eight-and at the top of your sixteenth spire, reach just a hundred feet heyond-half the height of a spire-then draw a long breath-you are at the top of El Capitan, 3,300 feet in air. Keeping that point in mind, drop down from itand spread out under it, for half a mile, a granite curtain, seamed and scarred, and discolored hy the storms and tempests of uneounted ages-at its base pile up a scraggy slope of roeks and mount- tain dehris-plant along the dizzy far-on edge a row of giant pines, that from its foot shall look like hushes-turn a river along its front, and set a grove heside it, and over it all throw the halo and witehery of a golden sunset, deepening all its shadows, bringing into relief its outlines, and hathing in a tender light its hoary summit-and you have El Capitan.
But we cannot devote space to even attempt a description of the wonders of this valley, and we will close hy a few directions for reaching it.
WHAT ROUTE TO TAKE.
If you travel by stage toward the valley from Mereed you will naturally want to sit outside-everyhody does. If you can secure your right hy purchase, do so; otherwise you must take your choice in an unpleasant scramble. The pleasantest way for a small party is to travel in a private conveyance. This you ean secure at the livery stahles of Merced, and a car- riage with driver will cost a party of four no more than their fare hy stage.
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SCENIC GRANDEUR OF YOSEMITE.
Private camping parties now enter the valley with their own teams. Camping has its drawbacks as well as its delights.
THE CAMPING GROUND.
In Yo Semite Valley the camp-ground is located at its upper end, about a mile from the hotels, and bencath the grateful shade of large oaks and pines, under the shadow of the royal arches, ncar the banks of the Merced River, and on the road to Mirror Lake.
Camping need not be expensive. Wear your old clothes, thick undergarments, stout shoes or boots, if you will drive some nails in the bottom, all the better; do your own cooking, there is plenty of dead timber for the fire, or you can buy and take with you canned meats and fish, soup and vegetables. They require no cooking. Pilot crackers make a splendid substitute for bread, or, if you choose to make it yourself, a spider in which you broil your steak will answer all purposes; there need not be either grcat expense or great labor, yet the ladies all know that cooking must be done by some one, and it is not agreeable work.
C. E. Rich, who camped there last year, says: "There is no need of great cxpense in visiting the points of interest. One can hire a guide at three dollars a day, and borses at three dol- lars each, including the guides, and make quite a bill-but it is unnecessary. Take horses with you that are broke to the sad- dle, have them well shod, feed them well, and you save the horse hire. Buy Whitney's Guide Book to the Yo Semite Val- ley, for not over $1.50-it is an excellent work, and reliable -- study it well and you will need no other guide. But if you wish one who is thoroughly acquainted with the whole mount- ain system of the higher Sierras, and can be of great service to you in many things, I know of no one to be preferred over Mr. James H. Duncan, of Mariposa. He is intelligent and gentle- manly (you may trust your children with him), has been the companion of Brewer and King in their explorations, knows every cranny in the hills, and carries his rifle.
He has killed his seventy-third bear, to say nothing of deer, and will prove a valuable assistant. Five dollars a day and feed, will engage himself and horse. A large party can divide the expense and so make it light on each one. But one need not pay for horses or guide, and then the whole expense of trail duty will be the tolls over the several routes, which are one dollar per head. On the route tolls begin at Slattery's, six miles above Hornitos, and occur again at Three Points, and are one dollar for two-horse teams, two dollars for four-horse teams, etc.
Five trips to the various points will include the usual routes of tourists, that to Mirror Lake not included, which must be taken early in the morning. First, to Eagle Point and Yo Semite Falls; second, to Union Point, Glacier Point, and Sen- tinel Doine; third, to Nevada and Vernal Falls; fourth, to South Doine aud Cloud's Rest ; fifth, to the Cascade and Bridal
Veil Falls, But these may be contracted to three trips, which I would advise. If one will enter the valley by the Coulter- ville route, say early in the day, he may see the Cascades, the rapids of the river, El Capitan in all its grandeur, get views of the Three Brothers, the Three Graces, Cathedral Peaks, and other points, take lunch at Bridal Veil Falls, and get into camp in time to pitch tents and regulate matters for the night. It will be remembered that the Mariposa route takes you in on the right wall of the valley, the Oak Flat route on the left wall, and by the Coulterville route, which I think the best, you enter on the floor of the valley, traversing its entire length. This will save taking trip No. 5. Trip No. 1, to Eagle Point and Yo Semite Falls, will be interesting and will occupy a day. Trips Nos. 2, 3, and 4 may be combined by being absent from camp two nights. Take a pack-mule with blankets and food for three days. The first day go to Union and Glacier Points, Sentinel Dome, and the Nevada Falls, or if able, push on up the winding, steep, dusty, unique but excellent trail, cut through the granite rock, to Little Yo Semite Valley; there camp. The next morning leave your luggage and climb the South Dome, some 300 feet of the way by a rope bolted into the solid rock, descend, travel on to the base of Cloud's Rest and ascend to its summit, return to the valley and camp for the night. On the third day return to Yo Semite, stopping to examine Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, the Cascades and Emerald Lake, getting a shower bath if it pleases you, and col- lecting your ferns. Then you may leave Yo Semite and return to your home in the assurance that you will see nothing grander until your eyes open upon the walls of the Celestial City.
THE BIG TREES.
Equal in attractiveness and wonder are the " big trees " in the region adjoining Merced County. To reach these noble specimens of the vegetable world, the better way is to go to Merced, and there the traveler will obtain proper directions how to proceed, either by public or private conveyance.
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