56 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



Of living mammals we saw not one, except a stray domestic 

 cat. 



Accounts differed as to the number of elk on the island, 

 and from information I received it would seem that they 

 were rapidly declining. 



Mr. A. Bryan Williams, the very efficient Commissioner 

 of Game for the Province of British Columbia, assures me, 

 however, that the elk are now being carefully protected. 



From Victoria southward I went by rail from Seattle to 

 San Francisco, thence I crossed the state twice to the crest 

 of the high Sierras, once to the Yosemite Valley and once 

 to Lake Tahoe. In addition to this I did some motoring 

 around Santa Cruz and Monterey. Later I went south- 

 ward through Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Santiago to 

 Mexico and crossed over to Santa Catalina. During this 

 entire trip I saw not one living land mammal, but I did see 

 at various places, especially in the Salinas Valley, small 

 flocks of little chief quail or mountain partridge. 



At Santa Catalina we found the well-known group of 

 half -tamed sea lions just outside of the harbor, and on 

 crossing back saw two whales spout. 



From the coast I returned home via the Grand Canon, 

 Flagstaff, Denver and Chicago. At the Grand Canon and 

 around Flagstaff I did some motoring in connection with 

 geological study covering a portion of the outlying country 

 and of the Painted Desert; and on all those trips I do not 

 recall seeing any animal of any description, although I may 

 have overlooked, in my recollections, a stray jack rabbit. 



Of course on the way back from the Rockies no one who 

 knows the country ever expects to see any living thing from 

 the train windows. 



This completes a rather long trip over the most north- 

 erly railroad route in Canada to the coast, and from the 

 coast within a few miles of Alaska down to and entering 

 Mexico, and back by the southerly route, together with the 

 side trips mentioned, and others of smaller importance not 

 referred to. The distance traversed, without the smaller 

 side trips, was over 12,000 miles, and with the exception 

 of marine life, the mammals consisted of four or five coy- 

 otes, one porcupine, a few prairie dogs and perhaps a dozen 

 rabbits. 



The game birds, at the outside, consisted of twenty or 

 thirty grouse and English pheasants, and as many moun- 



