J)0 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



ride among tlicni and the cattle, single one ont, ride him down and ham- 

 string him with a machete. Shortly before the General died, he spent 

 an afternoon with me and spoke of the big elk that used to be found 

 here and rather bitterly of the Americans killing them so wastef ully. " 

 Professor John Rockwell, who arrived at San Francisco in June, 1850, 

 has stated to ]\Ir. M. Hall McAllister that a few days after his arrival 

 he joined a party of young men who sailed up the ])ay to found a city 

 to be called "New York of the Pacific." After passing Suisun Bay 

 they entered the mouth of the Sacramento River and landed their 

 supplies on a point of land on the south shore, making their camp in 

 a small arroyo about a quarter of a mile back from the river. About 

 daylight the next morning they were aroused l)y tlie rush and tramping 



Fig. 2::.- UuU elk m i_oii,tl ucui iJuUunwilluw. liis anlkis u ill be sawed uff, 

 preparatory to shipment. Photo by John Rowley. 



of a large herd of animals. Crawling out of their tent they saw the 

 plain around them covered with a great herd of elk. The animals were 

 rushing back and forth seemingly unable to make out their intruders. 

 The party opened fire on the elk, bringing down one or two, when 

 the herd rushed off at great speed toward Monte del Diablo. 



Mr. Payne J. Shaffer of Olema, ]\Iarin County, has given the follow- 

 ing information to Mr. IMcAllister regarding elk in that county. He 

 says: "Don Juan Garcia (the old keeper of the Country Club) told 

 me that in about 1850 a Spanish priest with a band of Indians went 

 over on Point Reyes and drove a herd of about seventy-five elk on to a 

 peninsula in Limantour Bay. The priest had them nearly all killed for 

 their hides and tallow — bulls, cows, and calves, the last elk of Marin 

 County." Mr. Shaffer further says that when he first came to IMarin 

 County, in 1862, many antlers in good condition were gathered on Point 

 Reyes and kept as souvenirs. Also that Frank IMiller, an old hunter 

 and trapper, told him that, in 1852, he wifli another hunter named Bell 

 liad seen over a hundred elk swim across Tomales Bay and go north 



