THE GROUND SQUIRRELS OF CALIFORNIA. 



723 



DESPAIR. 



ground squirrel received due recognition early in the history of the 

 state, since the year of Drake's voyage to the California coast was 

 1579.' Hernandez, a Spanish scientist, describes many species of plants 

 and mammals in a ponderous trea- 

 tise written in Latin and edited in 

 1651, but so far as can be ascer- 

 tained the catalogue confined itself 

 to species south of the present 

 Mexican border. In 1829, John 

 Richardson, who accompanied Cap- 

 tain Beechey on his famous voyage 

 to the Pacific, prepared the first 

 scientific description of which men- 

 tion is made in the natural history 

 of the California ground squirrel in 

 this issue. 



EARLY HISTORY. 



Gradually the mission fathers 

 moved northward from Mexico, 

 founding the monuments to their 

 activities which are left standing lifgji|flBI5ii3iB: 

 even now from San Diego to San 



Francisco Bay region, and it is from 

 the archives, the records, and statis- 

 tics of these worthy men that we 

 again hear of the ground squirrel. 

 That this particular rodent formed 

 a considerable part of the natives' 

 diet we have very little data except 

 for occasional statements by resi- 

 dents of missions or voyagers by sea. 

 As for those coming from Spain and 

 Mexico depending upon squirrels at 

 all for food, we have no definite 

 information. We do learn of Indi- 

 ans bringing squirrels to the new- 

 comers, for in 1773, shortly after the 

 establishment of the Mission San 

 Antonio, Indians brought squirrels 

 in to the missionaries along with 

 pine nuts, acorns and rabbits. It 

 would seem that where food was not altogether plentiful ground squirrels 

 might have been eaten extensively. 



"With Spanish occupation came the practice of agriculture in its 

 many phases. The methods practiced were crude and the Indians 

 unskilled, nevertheless crops brought forth a harvest which, barring 

 climatic influences and pests, increased in size annually. Dry years 

 and floods came from time to time. Usually a dry year brought pests 

 in far greater numbers than normally was the case, since their natural 



HOW IS IT, NEIGHBOR? 



Fig. 45. An early advertisement 

 advocating the use of carbon disulphid 

 by the funnel and hose method. 



food could not be obtained in the required amounts. 



131 



Locusts," as 



