22 Reminiscences of 



one of them, Bennet, was a remarkably good and 

 successful shot, very muscular, and noted for his 

 adventures with and killing of grizzly bears. The 

 latter were quite plentiful then in mountain regions 

 about the Santa Clara Valley, in a region now taken 

 up wholly by settlements, from which the grizzlies 

 have been pretty effectually eliminated. 



In the early days grizzlies were very plentiful 

 about the valleys in the State, and John Bidwell, an 

 early settler in the Sacramento Valley, gives fre- 

 quent mention of them in his diary, lately published, 

 and of often seeing from eight to ten in a single day. 

 These grizzly monarchs, once so fierce and tenacious 

 and disputants of the regions they inhabited, are now 

 but rarely seen, excepting in menageries or parks, 

 where they humbly accept peanuts and sweets from 

 well-protected visitors. 



Elk have entirely disappeared, and deer are re- 

 stricted to comparatively limited ranges. Antelope, 

 once so plentiful, are about gone. It was not uncom- 

 mon in those early days to see large bands of elk 

 frequently, and deer were so plentiful as to occasion 

 cessation at times from shooting by the party I accom- 

 panied, from inability to transport to Alviso, the 

 shipping station to San Francisco. 



Our system comprised three pack mules, carrying 

 six deer, and required two days for the trip, one day 

 to Alviso, and one for return. These trips were 

 taken by the hunters in sequence, in which I took 

 part. I remained with this party for three months 

 until the shooting season ended. When it terminated 

 I had a small pot of money as my share, which con- 

 stituted my commencement capital for the business 



