CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



oceanic pelagic form and rare anywhere. I have seen 

 three large ones taken in this or the South Channel. 

 One had its mouth clogged with asphaltum which it 

 had tried to eat. There is a story, and very appro- 

 priate it is, to the effect that old tars can recognize 

 the vicinity of the Santa Barbara Channel by the 

 smell of asphaltum. It is found on the rocks of all 

 the islands, oozing out of the bottom at various places 

 and drifting away. On the mainland coast, opposite 

 Santa Rosa, oil rises and produces a perennial calm; 

 while north of Santa Barbara, on the More estate, 

 there is a vast area of asphaltum which crops out on 

 the beach in such vast quantities that vessels are 

 loaded with it with very little difficulty. 



This asphaltum was of vast importance to the early 

 natives. With it they stopped the holes in abalone 

 shells and made dishes, and they employed it for all 

 the purposes for which a white man uses glue; and 

 there is a wonderful deposit near Santa Monica, on 

 the Brea ranch, in which many ancient animals have 

 been found. 



Santa Rosa is well watered; in one of its attractive 

 valleys flows a little river rippling musically down to 

 the distant sea. 



A writer in The Overland Monthly of May, 1893, says: 



"Santa Rosa has an area of sixty-four thousand acres, well 

 watered, and intersected by deep valleys where the animals 

 may always find shelter. Like the others of this group it is 

 evidently of volcanic origin. Masses of black conglomerate 

 stone, evidently fused by great heat, show themselves fre- 

 quently, and lava can be found in places. Some trees are in 

 the canons, and a variety of small oaks covers much of the 

 steep hillsides; it is curiously twisted in its growth and seemingly 



