MANUFACTURES, ETC. 201 



The ox-shooter stalks his game. He has a trained ox, which 

 walks before him and hides him from the geese or ducks until 

 within good shooting-distance. The boat-shooters average 

 thirty ducks a day during the season ; and a good ox-shooter 

 will sometimes kill one hundred and fifty geese in a day. 



Snipe, curlew, and quail, are the game for sportsmen who 

 hunt for their amusement, and the modes of hunting them are 

 the same as those in the Eastern States. 



The diver or devil's diver frequents the bays of California, 

 and is killed for its pelt, which is used for collars, capes, and 

 muffs, the feathers being fine in texture, making a thick mat, 

 and wearing a smooth surface with lustrous white, gray, and 

 dark gray colors. The bird when shot is skinned by cutting 

 down the middle of the back, so as to preserve the beautiful 

 plumage of the breast entire ; and a large pelt, nicely stretched 

 and dried, has at times been worth $3 or $4 in the San Fran- 

 cisco market, and in Europe still more. It is said that as 

 many as one hundred have been killed by one hunter in a day, 

 but that was at a time when they were far more abundant 

 tban now. 



143. House-building. In the building of houses, the Cali- 

 fornians, like Americans generally, are expert and quick. It 

 it is not uncommon to see a wooden dwelling-house commenced 

 and finished within a month. Brick houses are built so fast, 

 that the mortar has scarcely time to dry and harden as the 

 walls go up. 1 Most of the houses are of wood, and of the kind 

 called " Balloon " or " Chicago " frames, fastened together with 

 nails, without tenons and mortices, and with no upright posts 

 thicker than two by four inches. This kind of a frame, called 

 " Balloon " from its lightness, and " Chicago" because they first 

 came extensively into use in that place about fifteen y^ears ago, 

 appears very strange to a carpenter familiar only with the old- 

 fashioned frames held together by tenons and mortices ; but 

 weak as the balloon-frame appears, it is really the strongest 

 kind of a wooden building ; and it is not unfrequently made 



