MANUFACTURES, ETC. 199 



The Spanish-Californians sometimes lasso the bear. When 

 four or five of them, well mounted, and provided with good 

 saddles and reatas, surprise a bear in an open plain, they all 

 beset him at once, and while one throws the lasso over his 

 head, another catches him by a hind-leg, and a third by a fore- 

 leg; and then two horses in front, but a little distance from 

 each other, drag him along, and the third and perhaps a fourth 

 horse follows him, each one keeping his lasso stretched, so that 

 even if the bear should succeed in breaking one riata or slip- 

 ping it off, he will still be held fast by several others. He is 

 thus dragged to a pen, where he is kept for a bull-fight or 

 some other amusement. 



It is only a few years since the elk were abundant on the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin, but they have now disappeared 

 in those places, and are found in small numbers along the 

 northern coast, where they will soon be exterminated. The 

 meat resembles that of the deer, but is a little coarser in grain. 

 The elk are shy animals, have a very quick ear, and are more 

 difficult to approach than any other game animal in the State, 

 unless the mountain sheep be excepted. They ordinarily lie 

 hidden in thickets during the middle of the day, and feed 

 about sunrise and sunset, at which times the hunters seek 

 them. 



The black-tailed deer are good game for the hunter. They 

 may be approached with more ease than the Virginia deer, run 

 with a steady gait, and when disturbed do not run so far. 

 The deer east of the Mississippi go with a run and a jump ; 

 the Pacific deer move with a steady run. Their meat is not 

 so sweet as that of their Eastern congeners. The deer live 

 near the timber, and are found along the coast and in the 

 Sierra Nevada. They were at one time very abundant, but are 

 now rapidly decreasing. The best place for hunting them is 

 in Mendocino County. There is no deer-hunting on horseback, 

 nor by large parties. The hunters go out alone or in small 

 parties. Occasionally a deer is caught with the lasso, but this 



