152 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



tain. It seemed easy of access, but when I approached 

 it after a tremendous chmb, it was still out of 

 reach and stood a vast opening in the face of the 

 mountain. 



One afternoon, while lying off a picturesque canon 

 near the "spring" on the east end, one of the party 

 began to fire at a mark, when out from a cave half- 

 way up the mountain began to stream sheep in pairs, 

 single, and in companies of a dozen or more, winding 

 their way up the great, seemingly impassable slope, 

 crossed and recrossed with trails. How many sheep 

 came from this one cave I do not know, but I should 

 venture to say several hundred. There are from ten 

 to fifteen thousand sheep on the island, and they have 

 seized upon these caves as homes. In riding down 

 the centre of the island I saw lambs lying in little 

 caves of just their size, and some caves held two. 

 About eight miles from the east end of the island there 

 is a wild and rocky canon that seems to be artificially 

 terraced with caves, so numerous are they. Many 

 could have been reached; others were isolated; and 

 far up toward the summit, where I could see eagles 

 flying, there were still caves, — the homes of the wild 

 goats of the upper crags. Well might this great rift 

 be named the Canon of the Caves. 



In some of these caves I found evidence of human 

 occupation; mounds of black soil, heaps of abalone 

 shells, broken implements, mortars and pestles, beads, 

 arrow or spear heads, telling of a human occupation 

 in the long ago, as San Clemente has been inhabited 

 beyond doubt for thousands of years. 



As the island is the top of a submerged mountain, 

 a peak thrust up from the ocean's bed, these caves 



