270 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



essential. Here I found steatite from the old manu- 

 factory of Potts's Valley, Santa Catalina, showing 

 that the natives traded. I have heard legends from 

 old Indians that the natives of the islands made 

 ollas of soapstone and traded with the natives of the 

 mainland. 



All the canons of the islands are attractive. Some 

 on the east end of Santa Catalina are never entered 

 and are remarkable for their abysmal depths; those at 

 San Clemente, as Mosquito and others, impress one 

 by their extraordinary depth — slashes of a big scim- 

 itar down into the rock of eternity, leaving massive 

 gorges. At San Nicolas I saw canons carved by the 

 wind into weird shapes, made by it, or by genii's wings; 

 but the canons of Santa Cruz are beautiful, like many 

 on Santa Catalina filled with beds of ferns and giant 

 brakes, banked with the gold and silver backed ferns 

 and other verdure, with the music of running water 

 and the songs of birds. Nowhere that I recall is there 

 such a contrast of verdure in winter and spring, and 

 barren desolation the rest of the year, as at Santa Cruz. 

 One can leave the fruit-laden valley, climb the hills, 

 and look down on drear sand-dunes and on rocks 

 riven by the seas of the ages. The flora here is ex- 

 tremely interesting, and resembles that of Santa Cata- 

 lina and the neighboring shores. Its rarest possession, 

 or at least most interesting one, is the little grove of 

 Torrey pines placed here by the Infinite for some good 

 purpose. 



To refer to the fishing at Santa Cruz would be to 

 duplicate what has been said of other islands. The 

 same fishes are seen here, but the fishing facilities are 

 not so good, because the conditions have not demanded 



