PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 45 



decaying hides and bones. Still, fatigue renders re- 

 pose sweet upon whatsoever it can be indidged, and 

 our party were glad enough to stretch themselves 

 awhile upon a creaking couch, the only one in the 

 hut, notwithstanding that the owner had a numerous 

 family. Here, had there been accommodation, and had 

 the place not acquired the reputation its name conveys, 

 they would willingly have ended their day's journey ; 

 but the idea of las pulgas, sufficiently numerous in all 

 the houses of California, determined them to proceed 

 as soon as they conveniently could. The plain still 

 continued animated with herds of cattle, horses, and 

 sheep grazing ; but the noble clusters of oak were 

 now varied with shrubberies, which afforded a retreat 

 to numerous coveys of Cahfornian partridges, of 

 which handsome species of game the first specimen 

 was brought to England by the Blossom, and is now 

 living in the gardens of the Zoological Society. 

 They are excellent food ; and the birds, in the coun- 

 try nov/ under description, are so tame that they 

 would often not start from a stone directed with 

 Indian skill. 



The sun went down before they reached Santa 

 Clara, which was to terminate that day's journey, 

 and being unaccustomed to ride, the whole party 

 were thoroughly fatigued. Indeed, so wearying was 

 the journey even to the animals that bore them, that 

 but for the relays of horses, which were now broueht 



••11 • 



m with a lasso, they might have been compelled to 

 pass the night upon the plain among the geese, the 

 jackals, and the bears, which in the vicinity of Santa 

 Clara are by no means scarce. The pleasure of re- 

 moving from a jaded horse to one that is fresh is not 

 unknown probably to my readers, and our party rode 



