Ranch Life 115 



ten feet, and a beak powerful enough to crack the 

 shank bone of a sheep. Our friend captured a 

 young condor and nourished it successfully for 

 some weeks. Then he asked us to arrange with 

 the Zoological Society for its purchase and ship- 

 ment, but, unfortunately, before we could do so 

 the bird died. These rapacidae are only to be 

 found, I believe, in the County of San Luis Obispo, 

 and in the mountains that lie near the seaboard in 

 California Baja. Another Missourian, a cousin of 

 the last, was also a market hunter and a naturalist. 

 He had made a special study of wild bees, the bees 

 that hive in holes in the steep sandstone cliffs and 

 those also who hive in rotten trees. From the sale 

 of the honey taken from them, from the sale of game 

 and venison (the latter suh rosa) and fish, both sea- 

 fish and trout, this son of Arcadia supported him- 

 self, his wife, two brothers, his wife's mother, and 

 a large family of children ! He often told me that 

 he could not work, using the word work in its 

 Western significance; yet, in his own calling, he 

 laboured more assiduously and to better purpose 

 than two ordinary hired men. 



I have not entered into a detailed account of our 

 ranch duties, because these will be treated in the 

 appendix. 



Of our amusements something may be said. At 

 one time we played polo, and I believe I am en- 

 titled to the credit of introducing the game to the 

 Pacific Slope. We used to play regularly in '83, 

 and I should be very interested to know if the 

 game was played West of the Kocky Mountains 



