YORK*, THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1874. 
( Volume 2, Number 22 
1 17 Chatham St. (CityHall Sqr.) 
Terms, Five Dollars a Year. ( ATT? XXT 
Ten Cents a Copy. f LN A2J VV 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE COMING MAN. 
F OOTFALLS sound on the pavement, 
Footfalls ring on the floor, 
A summons is struck at my portal, 
A summons is rung at my door; 
And my heart re-echoes the throfcbings 
It oft has echoed before. 
He comes with the early songsters 
That herald the morning light, 
# With the glare of the noon and the sunshine, 
That for me is no longer bright, 
And at eve when the tardy shadows 
Are lengthening into night. 
From the storm-cloud breaketh the thunder 
And falleth the dismal rain, 
And the north wind, blown from the ice land, 
Howls like a wolf in pain; 
But in storm and sunshine and shadow, 
He cometh, and cometh again. 
Well I know why he ceaseth never 
To harrow my tortured soul; 
Well I knqw why my life is haunted, 
When the angry thunders roll, 
And the forked lightning flashes 
Like the light of the Boreal pole. 
Well I know why his presence haunts me 
Like the wrath of an injured God; 
Well I know why my fated portals 
By his feet are ever trod; 
’Tis the Nemesis of tenants, 
’Tis the man with the lightning rod! J. J. Roche. 
For Forest and Stream. 
LA ISLA DE LA PIEL DE ORO, SIN DUDA 
ALGUNA. 
A WAY midst the snows of the Sierras, in midwinter of 
1868, was conceived by a few adventurous Nevadans 
the project of hunting, for their hides, tallow, and flesh, 
the wild goats then flocking Guadalupe Island, in the Pa¬ 
cific Ocean, and of supplying their places with a nobler 
race—the magnificent fleece-bearing Angora goat from 
Asia Minor. A Mexican citizen was forthwith enlisted in 
the enterprise, and through him the governor of lower 
Calfornia, Senor Don Carlos F. Galan, was petitioned for 
the right of entry into possession. The paper presented 
recited that the petitioner, “a Mexican eitizen of the Na¬ 
tional Guard, desiring to promote the prosperity of his na¬ 
tive land, has organized a company with the view of rais¬ 
ing Cashmere goats on said island;” that “it has never been 
inhabited; that it possesses all the qualities for such an 
object,” etc.; and the petitioner “solicits possession in 
order to bore artesian wells while the case is under consid¬ 
eration by the supreme government.” [The designation 
“Cashmere” is a misnomer as above used. The fleece¬ 
hearing goats of California are all of the Angara race, 
which is distinct from the true Cashmere species]. 
Within twenty days Governor Galan had granted his pe- 
Uoner’s prayer, and in the August following (rapid trans¬ 
fers of interest having in the meantime been made) an 
a gent of the claimants took possession for them. He re¬ 
mained upon the island twenty-two months—alone during 
most of the time—until relieved early in June, 1870, by a 
member of the compan}' - sent out for tliSl purpose, 
Guadalupe Island lies in twenty-nine degrees north lati¬ 
tude, about 190 miles in a southwesterly direction from 
San Diego, the run to that port being made by schooner in 
fi'om fifty to seventy-five hours, according to wind and 
weather. A nearer port is that of San Quentin, ninety 
miles distant on the peninsular coast. The island is twenty- 
six miles long, averages ten miles in width, and embraces 
mi area of 166,000 acres. Its general trend is north and 
south. The northern end is mountainous, the highest 
peak—Mount Augusta—rising 3,900 feet above the sea 
level. On this end there is considerable sugar and pine 
timber, with palm and some sycamore trees, and an abund¬ 
ance of copious springs, good grasses, and other vegeta¬ 
tion. Forests cover some 4,500 acres of the island; the 
timber is mostly white cedar and pine, and is valuable at 
San Diego for building, fencing, railroad ties, telegraph 
poles, wharf and bridge material, and for fuel. The west 
side of the island is broken into numerous deep canons, 
filled with growing palms. On the east side there is a two 
story frame house (sure sign of ios Americanos), built by 
one of the former claimants some years ago, and at other 
points there are old stone houses of the low-roofed Spanish 
model. The south end is flatter, but still hilly, and is 
without running water, though water is found in the rocky 
fissures after rains. In' other parts of the island, besides 
the numerous living springs, water may be had by exca¬ 
vating from three to ten feet. The beach at various points 
is frequently alive with the fur-seal and sea elephant, while 
all the bays abound with barracuda ( Sphyrcena bafrocuda ), 
a fish of the pike species, the same as found in the seas 
about the Bahamas and West Indies, from six to ten feet 
in length, and with other choice fish, which can be taken 
in great quantities. The southern extremity terminates in 
Whaler’s Bay, formed by a deep indentation of the island 
shore, protected in front by a long rocky ledge, with two 
buttes at either end—a capital breakwater. The entrance is 
from the east, and within may safely anchor the largest 
ship that floats, sheltered from all winds. Jack’s Bay, on 
the west side, has at the distance of 600 yards from the 
shore twenty-five fathoms of water. These bays are the 
frequent resort of whaling and other vessels. About eight 
miles from the northern extremity of the island on the 
eastern side, is Espaza Bay, another fine inlet, formerly the 
customary landing place of the goat hunters. Its anchor¬ 
age, forty yards from The shore, is fifteen fathoms, and it 
is admirably sheltered on three sides. During the late ter¬ 
rific gale on the coast in March the schooner Louisa Harker 
lay to in this safe harbor for several days. In the central 
portion of the island is the principal range of the goats, 
though Spring Valley, further north, has a grazing area of 
five square miles. A deep valley, covered luxuriantly with 
a carpet of living green, extends from Jack’s Bay across 
the centre. This principal range begins at the corrals and 
houses used by the goat killers, at a height of 2,900 feet 
above the sea, and stretches southward on the west side 
over a mesa (table land) covered with spruce timber, and 
eastward down a long valley; both mesa and valley having 
plenty of clover and alfillerillo. The central section has 
no running stream, brrt like the northern part of the island 
is full of fresh water springs. 
How the progenitors of these goats came upon Guada¬ 
lupe Island is not fully settled. One account says the im¬ 
mense flocks of recent years are descended from a few 
pairs left on the island in the last century by the famous 
navigator, Captain Cook. Other writers say the missionary 
padres first placed goats there sixty or seventy years ago. 
However that may be, certain it is that they are there now, 
and in vast numbers—so vast that in 1870 they were esti¬ 
mated to number 100,000 head or more. There being no 
beasts of prey upon the island, and the ewes being ex¬ 
tremely prolific, the flocks increase with wonderful rapid¬ 
ity. ' Thousands have been slaughtered within a few years. 
In the fall of 1870 alone 7,000 hides were taken, and report 
says that once 30,000 goats were killed by men from Santa 
Barbara. Here must have been hunting more abundant 
than that described by Mortimer Kerry in a late number 
of Forest and Stream, who tells about hunting the 
Rocky Mountain sheep near the cascades of the California 
mountains. The practice has been to ship the skins, tal¬ 
low, and meat to San Diego, thence to San Francisco, and 
there sell them. Mazatlan and Guayma, in Mexico, are 
also excellent soap markets. By 1873, when the island 
passed into the hands of the present owners, the work of 
slaughter had only reduced the number of goats there to 
about 20,000. 
During 1869 and 1870—exceptionally dry years—only a 
few light showers fell. For this, however, the heavy fogs 
which almost constantly envelope the higher regions some¬ 
what compensated. Generally the rainfall at the island is 
more abundant than in either lower California or the south¬ 
ern portion of upper California. In dry seasons the goats 
subsist mainly upon a species of cliemisal that is found 
green all over the island, and thus the damaging effects, of 
extreme drouth are obviated. Indeed, the goat is essen¬ 
tially a browsing animal, the Angora race consuming some 
forty-five more varieties of aromatic shrubs and plants 
than any other herbivorous animal. They eat not only 
with impunity, but with beneficial results, many vegetable 
growths that are rank poison to sheep and cattle. 
In good rainy seasons beautiful growths of nutritious 
grasses spring up spontaneously late in the fall and grow 
luxuriantly duryng the winter, spring, and early summer, 
affording the finest cropping for the flocks, which require 
no prepared food. So rich is the soil that nearly all the 
vegetables and fruits common to this latitude might be pro¬ 
duced in great abundance by cultivation. English walnuts, 
almonds, orange, lemons, limes, citrons, pine apples, 
prunes, dates, plantains, and all the semi-tropical fruits, in 
short, besides the grape, flourish on the peninsula as well 
as on the main land of southern California, and it is be¬ 
lieved would grdw to perfection on Guadalupe Island. 
This, however, is a resource yet to be developed. 
The climate is not hot, as might be inferred from the 
degree of latitude. There is frost occasionally, and ice 
has been seen on standing water there. The sea breezes 
make the summers delightful, and the salubrity and health¬ 
fulness of the atmosphere rival the famed buenos aires of 
San Diego and Santa Barbara. A clergyman from San 
Francisco spent a portion of the sumtner of 1870 there for 
his health, and it is not impossible that the island may yet 
take rank as a sanitarium with the favorite health resorts 
of the Pacific coast, now admitted to excel those of Nice, 
Mentone, and the Rivera, in southern Europe. 
But there are objects for future consideration. The im¬ 
mediate and practical value of Guadalupe Island lies in its 
adaptability for the production of Mohaii, or the fine fleece 
of the beautiful Angora goat, to the growing of which ani¬ 
mal it is now devoted. The territoiy and flocks passed 
into the hands of the Guadalupe Island Company, an in¬ 
corporated association of California capitalists and practi¬ 
cal wool growers, in January, 1873, and its new owners 
commenced at once the work of carrying out the original 
project, viz., the gradual supplanting of the native flocks 
by the more valuable fleece-bearing race. With this view 
they sent to the island early in the spring of 1873 their first 
shipment of Angora goats, embracing fifty of the finest 
bucks procurable in California (which were promptly “put 
where they would do the most good”), and sixty ewes for 
breeding pure bucks to supply future demands. The com¬ 
pany’s flocks were increased during the ensuing summer by 
the purchase of fifty more fine bucks and some 1,300 high 
grade ewes, which latter band was allowed to remain on 
the main land until the workmen on the island could com¬ 
plete the necessary inclosures for separating the fine from 
the common stock. The next step in the work of extir¬ 
pating the plebeian race was to commence the.slaughter of 
all the native bucks, numbering 10,000 or 12,000 head. 
This was continued throughout last winter. The small 
force of men on the island have been able to “get away 
with” only 1,200 head thus far, besides curing their pelts 
ready for sale to the morocco men, castrating 800 head 
of young bucks, and completing a large inclosure; but the 
company will next month put on an extra force to clear the 
island of the remaining bucks of the common stock, so as 
to leave nothing but wethers and ewes of this breed to run 
with the fine Angoras. The carcasses of the goats here¬ 
after to be slaughtered will be utilized to the best advant¬ 
age—the hams dried, the meats canned, the pelts and tal¬ 
low properly handled—so as to produce the largest possi¬ 
ble results from this source. 
The natural increase of these flocks is something won¬ 
derful and the results of the recent kidding season, when, 
