AROUND SANTA ROSA 289 



volume are found here. The rocky shores abound in 

 crayfish, Hmpets, mussels, crabs, and abalones. 



This island has been of interest to geologists, as 

 some years ago the teeth of a big elephant were found 

 here, showing that the island had not so long in the 

 past been connected with the mainland. The island 

 is rugged, yet on the higher places or the main ridge 

 one may ride for nearly four miles without rising or 

 descending more than one hundred and seventy-five 

 feet. On some of the beaches numerous whale bones 

 are found; and I was told by persons familiar with 

 the island that a few years ago during a terrific storm a 

 school of large California gray whales came in, evi- 

 dently confused, and ran high and dry on the beach, 

 where they were captured by the herders and the oil 

 and bone secured. That the early inhabitants were 

 successful whalers is evident from the whale bones 

 found on various islands, though how they took them 

 with their kelp ropes and flint spears is a matter of 

 conjecture. 



Santa Rosa is particularly rich in its valuable market 

 food-fishes of the kind known as rock-fish or groupers. 

 They are taken on banks, in deep water. The black- 

 banded rock-fish, tree-fish, corsair, orange rock-fish, 

 beach rock-fish, yellow rock-fish, flesh-colored rock- 

 fish, red rock-fish, grass rock-fish, and green rock-fish, 

 are a few of them, all fine food-fishes. Down the Kuro 

 Shiwo, or the Black Current of Japan, come many 

 rare fishes, some known in Japan as the Japanese 

 swordfish, the Japanese albacore, the ribbon fish, — 

 from deep water, which attains a length of twenty-five 

 feet and a width of a foot. I have seen three or four 

 of these rare creatures, and one over twenty feet long 



