The Northern Sea Elephant, left and facing page, a large 

 kind of seal that was once almost exterminated but has 

 reappeared on som^e islands off the coast of this province. 



and pancake-shaped bits of this substance, dried out to about the 

 firmness of hard rubber. These "pits" are found in a number of 

 places about the earth, the most notable being one of the same 

 name on the island of Trinidad. 



Asphalt is a sort of end product of oil in nature, just as tar is 

 of crude oil in industry, being what is left after lighter oils have 

 been distilled off from the crude. Oil pockets in surface strata 

 of rocks may be pinched by earth movements and burst through 

 to the surface, and if this happens in the bottom of a depression, 

 the oil forms a sort of lake. There, exposed to the air and washed 

 by rain water, the lighter oils which naturally rise to the surface 

 eventually run off and the asphalt or pitch is left. The most 

 interesting feature of the Los Angeles pits is that they contain 

 large numbers of bones and even complete skeletons of extinct 

 animals. Among these are the bones of the Imperial Mammoth, 

 probably the largest elephantine that ever lived; of mastodons; 

 the giant ground sloths; a tapir; a camel; bison; the remarkable 

 saber-toothed cats; and of numerous birds. These pits were dis- 

 covered in 1769, but no use was made of them until 1875, when 

 the owner — a Mr. Hancock — discovered the skeleton of a saber- 

 tooth. Digging or mining of the asphalt continued until 1906 

 before any proper scientific excavation was undertaken. So much 

 of interest was then found that Mr. Hancock deeded the pits to 

 the County of Los Angeles in 1915, and subsequently a great 

 collection of animal remains was recovered and housed in the 

 Los Angeles County Museum. 



A popular notion once gained credence to the effect that these 

 hapless beasts of the Pleistocene or "ice age" had fallen into pits 

 constituted just as we see them today. A moment's reflection, 

 however, will dispel any such idea, for the asphalt is so firm 

 that on the Trinidadian "lake" a railroad track is laid across it 

 to serve in the transport of material dug out of it. The animals 

 must have sunk into it when the area was filled with semi- 

 liquids of a much lighter density. It has been pointed out that 

 animals, especially elephants, very seldom if ever become mired 

 in the wild, having an uncanny knack of knowing the nature 

 of treacherous ground in advance, usually testing it carefully 



before going upon it, and being able to extricate themselves from 

 deep mud and even quicksands. As a man will just float in wa- 

 ter, he will only go down about halfway in quicksand, which is 

 much denser: it is his upright gait and his panic that cause him to 

 work his way down. Animals, being horizontal and not pan- 

 icking, tend to "float," and then usually manage to paddle their 

 way to a firm bottom. However, oil and pitch lakes are often 

 covered with water, under which there may be a fairly firm 

 crust rendered slippery by the water; and animals may march 

 out onto this, break through, and then be caught in a viscous 

 mass with the tenacity of glue. This would account for the trap- 

 ping of the larger, heavier animals, especially those with narrow, 

 tapering limbs. Once so mired, these would attract the carnivores 

 such as the saber-toothed cats, who in turn might get bogged. 

 The birds, on the other hand, probably fell from trees growing 

 around or actually in the "lakes," sank to the bottom, and were 

 slowly engulfed. There are voracious little fish in the water on 

 some of these asphalt "lakes," though the temperature of that 

 water may rise almost to boiling point during the day in direct 

 sunlight, since the asphalt, being black, absorbs every bit of 

 heat. These fish feed upon algae and some plants that manage to 

 grow in these waters; they also attack any small animal that 

 drowns therein, and soon take it apart, so that its bones sink to 

 the bottom and are gradually engulfed. 



WINGED JEWELS 



This province has a vast avifauna, since it is a meeting place for 

 the species of the northwest from as far away as southern 

 Alaska, and a certain quota from the subtropics, while floods of 

 migrants pass through almost all year. It also has some unique 

 types, the most notable being the Californian Condor, of which 

 only some hundred are estimated to be still alive. This is the 

 largest land bird that can fly, having a wing span of up to ten 

 feet and weighing about 20 pounds. It is related to the brilliantly 

 colored King Vulture of the Andes — where it has also an even 

 nearer relative in the Andean Condor — and belongs to the same 

 group of birds as the Turkey Buzzard and the Black-headed 

 Vulture. Actually, these birds are not true vultures but belong 

 to a family named the Cathartids which is confined to the New 

 World. 



Most typical of this land are those marvelous little creatures, 

 the hummingbirds. They are everywhere by the millions, heard 

 more often than seen, chittering away like small electric fuses 

 blowing, and streaking through the sunlight. One, the male of 

 the Broad-tailed species, even makes a high-pitched keening 

 noise with its wings as it slices through the air. I remember a 

 place among the foothills of the Santa Yfiez Mountains, bathed 

 in sunlight and surrounded by many flowering bushes and 

 massed vegetation of almost tropical appearance, where I sat with 

 a companion for four hours while five species of these extraor- 

 dinary little ingenuities of nature whirred about us from bloom 

 to bloom. There were the Black-chinned, Anna's, Allen's, the 

 Broad-tailed, and the absolutely unbelievable little Calliope with 

 its glittering, iridescent red and platinum throat. 



Hummingbirds are birds of the western hemisphere, and over 

 300 species of them are known. They are the smallest of all birds, 

 and among them are some of the most exquisitely colored. 



248 



