198 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Ion ; and so long as the season lasts, the fishermen make from 

 five to ten dollars per day. 



Monterey Bay is destined to be the seat of a large fishing 

 interest. The bay, being twenty miles wide at the mouth, and 

 ten miles deep inland, serves as a sort of bag to catch the fish, 

 which come running down the coast near shore; and as the 

 depth of water is not great, fishermen have an excellent chance 

 at them. Many kinds of fish, which seldom venture in at the 

 narrow Golden Gate against a strong tide and fresh water, 

 abound at Monterey. There is no better place on the coast for 

 catching sardines and herrings than at Monterey, which town 

 would also be an excellent rendezvous for smacks engaged in 

 catching the larger varieties of fish that are found in the 

 Santa Barbara Channel. So many whales enter Monterey Bay, 

 that there are several whale-boats constantly engaged in hunt- 

 ing them, and about forty are killed annually. The Mon- 

 terey whale fishers are mostly Portuguese ; the Chinese devote 

 themselves to fishing for small fry, of which they catch and 

 dry about three hundred tons in a year. Besides the fish, the 

 Celestials take great numbers of abelones, the mollusks that 

 make the large, bright, univalve, pearl-like shells of our Coast. 



142. Hunting. The principal game quadrupeds and birds 

 of California are grizzly bear, elk, deer, antelope, hare, rabbit ; 

 the gray Canada brant, the white goose; the canvas-back, 

 mallard, sprig-tail, spoonbill, and summer ducks, the widgeon, 

 the teal, the English black-breasted, sand, and dowiches snipe ; 

 the curlew, the mountain partridge, the valley quail, and var- 

 ious kinds of grouse. Nobody makes a business of hunting 

 the grizzly : to attack him is so dangerous, and to kill him so 

 difficult, that many hunters will not shoot at him even when 

 he comes in their way. A large number of them, however, 

 are killed every year, and their carcasses are seen in the meat 

 markets of San Francisco at all seasons of the year. The 

 meat resembles pork in its greasiness, but it is coarser in texture, 

 and rank in flavor. It nauseates some delicate stomachs. 



