122 RESOURCES OF CALIFORXIA. 



greatest weight one thousand pounds. The color is a chest- 

 nut brown, dark on the head, neck, and legs, lighter and yel- 

 lowish on the back and sides. The horns are very large, some- 

 times more than four feet long, three feet across from tip to 

 tip, measuring three inches in diameter above the burr, and 

 weighing, with the skull, exclusive of the lower jaw, forty 

 pounds. The horns of the old bucks have from seven to nine, 

 perhaps more, prongs, all growing forward, the main stem 

 running u]:)jrard and backward. The elk were very abundant 

 in California previous to 1849, and they were frequently seen 

 in large herds ; but within the last ten years they have become 

 rare, and before the close of another decade they will be ex- 

 tinct in our state. A few are found in the San Joaquin valley, 

 but the best place for hunting them is in Mendocino county. 

 Several hundred carcasses find their way every year to the 

 San Francisco market. The young fat elk furnishes a very 

 juicy and sweet venison. 



The white-tailed Virginian deer, once common in the states 

 east of the Mississippi, is not found in California, but in its 

 place we have the black-tailed deer {Cervus colwnhianus)^ 

 which is a little larger and has brighter colors, but does not 

 furnish as good venison, the meat lacking the juiciness and 

 savory taste of the venison in the Mississippi valley. The av- 

 erage weight of the buck is about one hundred and twenty- 

 pounds, and of the doe one hundred pounds, but bucks have 

 been found to weigh two hundred and seventy-five pounds. 

 The summer-coat of the black-tailed deer is composed of rather 

 long and coarse hair, of a tawny brown, approaching chestnut 

 on the back. In September this hair begins to come off, expo- 

 sing what the hunters call the " blue coat," which is at first 

 fine and silky, and of a bluish-gray color, afterward becoming 

 chestnut brown, inclining to gray on the sides, and to black 

 along the back. Occasionally deer purely white are found. 

 The horn, when long, is about two feet long, and forks near 

 mid-length, and each prong forks again, making four points, to 

 which a little spur, issuing from near the base of the horn, may 



