ANIMAL LIFE OF THE CUYAMACA MOUNTAINS. 15 
enough from rain and fogs, while the lower classes frequently 
remain torpid during unusual droughts.* 
The mammals seen were very few. The grizzly bear (or perhaps 
a different species called the cinnamon bear) is said to occur 
rarely. The skunks, the most frequently noticed of the small 
carnivora, did not make their presence known, and I heard ten 
years ago, that the dry seasons preceding had nearly exterminated 
them in the low country. The other small carnivora are still more 
scarce, their usual prey, the Rodentia, having disappeared. 
Wild cats are not rare about the highest peaks, and a skin I saw 
was only a young of the common Lynx rufus, var. maculatus. I 
heard formerly of long-tailed spotted cats being found in these 
southern ranges, but if the Felis eyra or Felis onza have ever 
reached them by crossing the deserts eastward, they have become 
now exceedingly scarce, through starvation or from being hunted. 
Cayotés (Canis latrans) are scarce, and I heard nothing of foxes. 
Of Rodents, the almost universal Spermophilus Beecheyi was so 
scarce in the mountains, that I saw only two, both near streams at 
four thousand feet altitude. They are, however, common near 
river-beds along the coast, though less so than formerly. I saw a 
small.spermophile near Julian which may have been S. lateralis, or 
a new species, obtained by me at Fort Mojave. 
_ The largest of our tree squirrels, found on the San Bernardino 
range (Sciurus leporinus), is absent, as well as all its arboreal 
allies. I saw none of the numerous and destructive murine bur- 
rowers, nor any bats, but a longer residence might furnish these in 
some spots. Of the Hare family I saw only a few; Lepus Califor- 
nicus in the foot-hills, and L. Audubonii once about two thousand 
feet up. 
Deer, requiring much water, are very scarce, while the moun- 
tains are too rough for the antelope, and too much wooded for the 
mountain sheep, though both of these may occur not far away. 
-On account of the scarcity of carnivorous animals, certain kinds 
* The complete drying bef of the streams | mom this range, at times, is shown by es 
absence of fish. than W 
, miles north of San Felipe at the head of San Luis Rey riv 
+ The finding of Lagomys ceps, the “ Little Chief Baa? by Mr. Gabb, on a moun- 
tain in Lower Ca lifornia ten thousand feet high and near the boundary line, is a prob- 
lem in zoology not easily W olved, as = animal could not have reached there from the 
north under the 8, since it does not come lower down on the 
Sierra Nevada in latitude 39° than six thonsand feet (see saree wesc of the Academy 
Sciences, Philadelphia, 1858). 
