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Vol. I. No. 2. 



ALAMEDA, CAL., OCTOBER, 1893. 



(One Dollar 

 I Per Year. 



.A TRIP TO THE FARALLONES. 



BY H. R. TAYLOR. 



A dream of sometliing marvelously un- 

 real — so do you think of your experiences 

 after a sojourn among the myriads of sea 

 fowl which inhabit in the spring and 

 summer the picturesque Farallone Islands, 

 twenty-three miles out ^in the Pacific from 

 the Golden Gate. 



A chance 

 visit of a tug 

 boat, or a 

 some - what 

 pr ecari ous 

 sail on a fish- 

 ing boat of 

 the Greeks 

 who collect 

 California 

 Murre's eggs 

 on the Islands 

 for the San 

 Francisco 

 market, fur- 

 nishes ordin- 

 arily the only 

 means of rea- 

 ching the Farallones. When I first visited 

 them, one lovely June, however, the trip 

 was made on the lighthouse tender Madrono. 



When we left port and steamed toward 

 the Golden Gate a stiff gale was blowing, 

 which gave me the pleasing suggestion 

 that possibly, as is often the case in very 

 rough weather, it would be out of the 

 question to try to effect a landing at the 

 Island, and that with my great basket of 



CALIFORNIA MURRES. 



cotton and supplies, I would be put off 

 unceremoniously at Point Reyes, while the 

 steamer pursued its course to the north. 

 Thoughts of this unpleasant contingency, 

 or the angry aspect of the sea, had driven 

 me below, and there I was meditating on 

 the uncertainty of events, and all unmind- 

 ful that I was nearing my destination, 

 when I was startled by hearing the cap- 

 tain's bell, and felt that the Madrono was 



slackening 

 speed. 



I climbed 

 on deck, and 

 there, rising 

 grotesque and 

 grand from 

 the ocean's 

 depths, were 

 the rocky 

 Farallones. 



Pretty "Sea 

 Pigeons" (as 

 the Pigeon 

 Guillemot is 

 here called) 

 were flying 

 and diving all 

 around us, and beautiful Western Gulls 

 and occasional Cormorants told us what 

 sights there might be to delight the eyes 

 of the Q.g% collector in this wonderful city 

 of the birds. 



As we came nearer I saw that the crags 

 and peaks were dotted everywhere with 

 something like a low, thick vegetation. 

 "What are those ?" I asked of a sailor. 

 ''Birds," said he, laconically. 



