388 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



the head, neck, and legs, lighter and yellowish on the back 

 and sides. The horns are very large, sometimes more than 

 four feet long, three feet across from tip to tip, measuring 

 three inches in diameter above the burr, and weighing, with 

 the skull, exclusive of the lower jaw, forty pounds. The 

 horns of the old bucks have from seven to nine, perhaps more, 

 prongs, all growing forward, the main stem running upward 

 and backward. The elk were very abundant in California 

 previous to 1849, and they were frequently seen in large 

 herds ; but within the last ten years they have become rare, 

 and before the close of another decade they will be extinct in 

 our State. A few were found in the San Joaquin Valley, but 

 the best place for hunting them is in Mendocino County. 

 Several score of carcasses find their way every year to the 

 San Francisco market. The young fat elk furnishes a very 

 juicy and sweet vension. 



The white-tailed Virginian deer, once common in the States 

 east of the Mississippi, is not found in California, but in its 

 place we have the black-tailed deer, (Cervus columbianus) 

 which is a little larger and has brighter colors, but does not 

 furnish as good vension, the meat lacking the juiciness and 

 savory taste of the venison in the Mississippi Valley. The 

 average weight of the buck is about one hundred and twenty 

 pounds, and of the doe one hundred pounds, but bucks have 

 been found to weigh two hundred and seventy-five pounds. 

 The summer-coat of the black-tailed deer is composed of 

 rather long and coarse hair, of a tawny brown, approaching 

 chestnut on the back. In September this hair begins to come 

 off, exposing what the hunters call the " blue coat," which is 

 at first fine and silky, and of a bluish-gray color, afterward 

 becoming chestnut brown, inclining to -gray on the sides, and 

 to black along the back. Occasionally, deer purely white are 

 found. The horn, when at it greatest length, is about two feet 

 long, and forks near mid-length, and each prong forks again, 

 making four points, to which a little spur, issuing from near 



