Hummingbirds 

 and Kelp Beds 



North America's "Mediterranea" 

 in Southern and Baja California 



It may seem a big jump from the barren gray aridity of the 

 southern parts of the Great Basin to a land so lush in appearance, 

 so verdant, and so balmy yet always freshened by ocean breezes 

 and filled with flowers and palm trees and clouds of humming- 

 birds. And it is indeed a leap, though not a great one in space, as 

 may be seen from the map; nor is it one in fundamentals, as a 

 little closer inspection of the country will show. 



In the Great Basin we were in a desert in the widest sense of 

 that term, but we were in the North Scrub Belt. If we follow this 

 belt on its ever westward progress from that area, we see that it 

 plunges under the south end of the Sierra Nevada and then 

 emerges onto the lower end of the Sacramento valley, where we 

 find country similar to and little less arid than that which we 

 have just left on the other side of the mountains. But then, right 

 athwart our path, we find another barrier of mountains. These 

 are the multiple ranges of southern California, which stretch 

 along the Pacific coast from Point Conception southeast to the 

 region of Los Angeles and then run inland to the San Bernar- 

 dinos. These mountains are green and fully forested, but their 

 feet are girt with lovely yellow grasslands above which are parks 

 dotted with bushy oaks. Our scrublands extend right to these 

 mountain feet and there give way to the grass; which is to say, 

 they "plunge under" these mountains also — but only to appear 

 once more, for the last time on this continent, on the shores of 

 the ocean beyond. 



To the south of the Scrub Belt lie the Hot Deserts, and before 

 the coming of the white man the dividing line between the two 

 emerged onto the coast about the valley and narrow coastal 

 plain in which Los Angeles is now situated. Thus, although these 

 mountains and others lying to the south of that point are green, 

 the lowlands were from there on to the peninsula of Baja Cali- 

 fornia originally much more arid. Today irrigation has been 

 initiated on an enormous scale throughout this area, but 

 wherever it has not been, you will find at sea level places of a 

 most desolate nature, clothed only in stunted and clumpy scrub 

 and cactuses and inhabited by the typical fauna of the Sonoran 

 deserts. 



Thus the two mountain blocks which compose the greater part 

 of this province are seated upon the North Scrub and the true 

 deserts, their feet being bathed in a sea of chaparral, as it were. 

 Above these in most areas are rather sterile-looking grassfields. 



seen typically along the coast, especially between Los Angeles 

 and San Diego, and in the inner valleys. But these montane 

 prairies are narrow, and, as one ascends even low hills, they 

 merge rapidly into beautiful parklands dotted at first with indi- 

 vidual evergreen oaks and then clumps of them. In the eastern 

 and southern ranges the chaparrals are more extensive and 

 profuse, and in many places they merge above with the montane 

 temperate zone, squeezing out the grassfields and parklands 

 almost entirely. The upper slopes of all the ranges are clothed 

 in the most beautiful mixed forests of evergreen broad-lealed 

 trees, shrubs, and conifers of various typically southern varieties. 

 On the tops of the highest peaks and ridges there are still pure 

 stands of northern types of conifers with a typical boreal type of 

 undergrowth. 



THE ANCIENT ISLES 



Lying off the coast between Point Conception and Los Angeles 

 are a number of interesting though rather barren islands. These 

 form two groups: in the northwest, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, 

 Santa Cruz, and the Anacapa Islands; in the south and west, 

 the three larger isolated islands named Santa Barbara. Santa 

 Catalina. and San Clemente. Today these islands are put to 

 various purposes, and some of them are "off bounds" to all but 

 the Coast Guard. Each is of considerable interest to the zoologist 

 on account of its lesser fauna, notably the rodents, lizards, and 

 insects; they are of equal interest to the botanists because they 

 support some unique plants, as well as others which are found 

 also on the adjacent mainland but which have developed into 

 special and in several cases dwarf forms on these islands. They 

 are, however, perhaps of greatest interest to palaeontologists and 

 especially to palaeoanthropologists — i.e.. those who study the 

 fossilized or other ancient remains of Man. 



The Santa Barbara Natural History Museum has for several 

 years now been carrying on excavations on the north shore of 

 the island of Santa Rosa, where there are modest earth cliffs 

 leaning landward in large steps and intersected by deep gullies. 

 Working around these, the excavators have brought to light 

 hearths made by very ancient tribesmen along with a great 

 number of artifacts in stone and bone. The bones of several ani- 

 mals also have been brought to light, among which the most 

 interesting are those of a pigmy form of elephantine related to 

 the Mammoth, if not indeed a tiny kind of that species. Sudi 

 very small examples of this group of elephantines have not been 

 found anywhere else in the world — though equally small rela- 

 tives of the African "Elephant" or Loxodont have been unearthed 

 on the island of Malta. From this palaeontological evidence and 

 that of some of the living plants and animals, it seems that these 

 islands have not been connected to the mainland for a very long 

 time. Pigmy island races of many animals are known, and it is 

 conjectured that their small stature develops slowly to conform 

 to limited space and food supply after the animals have been 

 isolated. However, some small island races might well be sur- 

 vivals of an original short-statured stock from which their larger 

 relatives later evolved on the mainland. 



These pigmy mammoth or elephant bones have been found 

 in considerable quantities, and there is evidence that their 



A Rufous Hummingbird helicoptering before a flower This 

 province abounds in these gemlike birds that dart about and 

 flick their wings like tiny whips wherever trees, shrubs, 

 or herbs flower. 



244 



