200 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



requires an excellent horse, a first-rate vaquero, and a snrprise, 

 or when a man riding through the woods will occasionally 

 come within a few yards of the deer before being seen. 



The antelope lives in the open plain and in the desert. The 

 valley of San Joaquin was once full of great herds of them, 

 but they, like other large game, have become rare now. They 

 are shy, but inquisitive also, and are easily enticed to approach 

 the hunter, who hides himself behind a rock, and fastening a 

 white handkerchief to his ramrod, waves it back and forth. 

 The antelope, like the deer, is occasionally caught with the 

 reata, but these occasions do not occur once in the year, and 

 when they do occur, they establish the fame of the horse and 

 rider engaged in the exploit. 



There is one pack of hounds in the State, and they are some- 

 times, but rarely, used for hunting coyotes and foxes, as well 

 as deer. 



The wild geese and ducks are very abundant in California, 

 from September to March. They spend the winter in the tules 

 of San Francisco Bay and tributary waters, and in the spring 

 they migrate to the north. While here, they afford profitable 

 employment to a number of hunters, who are of two classes 

 the " boat-shooters " and the " ox-shooters. " The boat-shooters 

 go in parties of two or three, each party having a sloop of its 

 own. The sloop goes to the slough where the game abounds, 

 and there every man starts in his skirF, with three double-bar- 

 relled shot-guns. He usually shoots first at the ducks or geese 

 while they are in the water, and afterward again and again as 

 they rise and fly. Sometimes he goes ashore, to shoot them 

 while feeding. The geese spend the night in the water gen- 

 erally in a slough or pond and rise about daybreak, to feed 

 in the fields of grain, grass, or wild oats. They remain there 

 during a considerable part of the morning, return to spend the 

 middle of the day in the water, go back to the fields in the 

 afternoon, and at sunset take to the water again for the night. 

 The ducks get most of their food in the tules, and are not 

 often shot on the land. 



