Garcia extended his hospitality to Revere and his men, and invited 

 Revere to join him and several neighboring rancheros on an elk hunt. The offer 

 was accepted and Garcia provided Revere and two of his men with fresh horses 

 for the day. 23 



Garcia and his neighboring rancheros appreciated the Point Reyes 

 Peninsula for the vast herds of elk which grazed on its exceptional natural 

 pasturage. Sir George Simpson in 1841, had marveled at the cattle and horses 

 feeding on the grassy slopes of the peninsula and observed they "were growing 

 and fattening, whether their owners waked or slept, in the very middle of 

 winter, and in the coldest nook of the province." The elk, while still relatively 

 isolated and undisturbed on Point Reyes, gained even higher esteem among the 

 Californios who prized their fat for cooking. 24 



Point Reyes' heavy dews and proximity to the sea fostered a great 

 luxuriance of wild oats and other grains and grasses which supported the huge 

 elk herds. August was the best time of the year to hunt because the elk then 

 had grown to their fattest, making them easy prey for the specially-trained 

 horses and their riders, whereas, only a few months later, "the fleetest horse 

 could hardly overtake them." On the elk hunt with Lieutenant Revere, the 

 Californio hunters carried no firearms, but instead, a rope or riata, "the 

 unfailing companion of all rancheros." Through the lifting fog they caught sight 

 of "not less than four hundred head of superb fat animals," six of which the 

 rancheros, with some help from Revere, brought down and killed with a lima, 

 (a crescent-shaped stone used for hamstringing the elk), a knife, and Revere's 

 shotgun. 



Elk furnished a popular staple, tallow, for which the Californio rancheros 

 felt considerable gratitude. Revere overheard a Californio, who had an elk 

 entangled in his riata. address the struggling beast as "cundo", or brother-in-law, 

 and assuring him that he only wanted a little of his lard to cook tortillas. Once 

 processed, the elk fat possessed a "superior hardness, whiteness and delicacy", 

 which evidently was consumed in enormous quantities. From the six elk killed 

 on the first day of the hunt with Lieutenant Revere, the Californios obtained at 

 least 800 pounds of tallow which they stored in two large hides, doubled in the 

 middle and laced with thongs on the sides. The next morning, the rancheros 



23 Joseph Warren Revere, Naval Duty in California (Reprint, Oakland: Biobooks, 1947), p. 64. 

 24 Simpson, Narrative 1: 274. 



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