QUAIL SHOOTING JN CALIFORNIA. 37 



It was in September, 186 — _, I first had tlie pleasure 

 of quailing. I was at San Francisco, and had made 

 frequent excursions to Savcelito, San Rafael, and other 

 neighbouring places, with varied success, and I soon 

 made the acquaintance of a professional hunter for the 

 market. He was about to make the San Jose Yalley his 

 head-quarters for the winter, and his glowing account 

 of the quantities of game there made me determine to 

 accompany him for a month. He provided dogs, &c., 

 and I readily agreed to give him all I shot. Our tent 

 was soon packed up ; our blankets, some tobacco, coffee, 

 flour, sugar, one or two tin " billies '^ rolled up inside, 

 completed our outfit. We placed the lot in an express 

 wagon, with a spare mustang led behind, and, with 

 a boy to mind the things when we were away shooting, 

 ofi" we went towards San Jose. After going about thirty- 

 five miles down the valley, we halted at a small shanty, 

 or hotel as the Yanks call it, for the night. By-the-bye, 

 every tumble-down shebeen with a keg of chain-lightning 

 whiskey in it is an " hotel " in America. While smoking 

 our pipes in the evening a man who heard what we were 

 after told us he was ranching, or farming, about ten 

 miles ofi* the main road through the valley. As he was 

 somewhere in the direction we intended to shoot, we 

 olosed with his ofi'er to let us have a berth in his house 

 to spread our blankets on ; by this means we should be 

 saved the trouble of pitching our tent and the fear of 

 having our belongings stolen, while at the same time we 

 could easily get to fresh ground as often as we liked on 

 horseback. 



Next morning we all three started on the express 

 wagon, having sent back the boy. About noon we 

 arrived at our friend^s ranch — a wood house or hut, and 



