7 2 Life in the Open 



looks down upon the mountains from the Strawberry 

 Valley, around Idlewild, and the great slopes of San 

 Antonio and the clefts of Mount Wilson are his home ; 

 or you may find him in the Santiago mountains, where 

 he forms the game par excellence for the Santiago Hunt 

 Club, and doubtless helps himself to the chickens of 

 the master of the hounds when the pack is away on a 

 hunt; indeed you may find this little fox on San Nicolas 

 Island, and on San Clemente, where he is smaller than 

 ever. Everywhere he preys upon quail, or small birds, 

 varying this diet with tuna, wild grape, or chilocothe. 



They are particularly common at Santa Catalina. 

 On the summit of this island is a range of mountains, 

 named for Cabrillo, the discoverer of the island, which 

 have several isolated peaks, twenty-two hundred feet 

 in height, surrounded by a maze of caftons. In between 

 these, running directly across the island, is a long and 

 well-wooded caflon, in its lower range called Middle 

 Ranch, the Cabrillo range forming the south wall of 

 green. In camp here one is never away from the me- 

 lodious note of the quail, while the foxes make a runway 

 down every cafion and along the tops of the range where 

 great reaches of low chaparral sweep away to the sea. 

 At San Clemente they stole from my camp and came 

 around every night. 



Fox-hunting is indulged in all over California, but 

 it is a failure in the open. The fox will make a long 

 run in the chaparral, but in the open country he will 

 run for the trees in sight and leap up their sides with 



