PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
403 
Our knowledge of the natural history of this country cannot be CHAP, 
expected to be very extensive. In the woods not immediately bor- 
dering upon the missions, the black bear has his habitation, and when Dec^-_ 
food is scarce it is dangerous to pass through them alone in the dusk 
of the evening ; but when the acorns abound there is nothing to appre- 
hend. It is said that the white bear also visits this district occasionally, 
from the northward. The lion (felts concolor f ) and the tiger (fells 
onca ? ) are natives of these woods, but we never saw them ; the inha- 
bitants say they are small, and that the lion is less than the tiger, but 
more powerful. A large species of mountain cat ( gato del monte) is 
common : a pole cat ( viverra putoriiis ) also is found in the woods : 
wolves and foxes are numerous, and the cuiotas, or jackalls, range about 
the plains at night, and prove very destructive to the sheep. The fallow 
deer browses on the pasture land, not only in the interior, but also upon 
some of the islands and round the shores of the harbour : it is sought 
after for its skin, of which the Spaniards make boots, shoes, &c. The 
rein-deer also is found inland, particularly upon a large plain named 
Tulurayos, on account of the number of bulrushes growing there. In 
the months of May and June the Spaniards resort to this plain with 
their lassos, and take as many of these animals as they can ensnare, for 
the sake of their fat, of which they will sometimes procure between 
four and five arobas from one animal. 
The fields are burrowed by a small rat, resembling the tnus arvalis, 
by a mountain rat of the cricetus species, and also by the ardillo, a 
species of sciurus, rather a pretty little animal, said to be good to eat : 
another of this species was seen among the branches of the trees. A 
small variety otlepiis cuniculus is very common in the sand-hills near the 
presidio ; hares are less common, and indeed it is doubtful whether any 
were seen by us. Raccoons are found in the mountains at a distance 
from the coast. The &ea otter ( mustela lutris ) is not an unfrequent 
visiter in the harbour of San Francisco, but very few of them are taken, 
notwithstanding their fur is valuable. Judging from the accounts that 
have been published, these animals are becoming less numerous upon 
the coast : in 1786 it was stated that 50,000 of them might be collected 
annually, whereas at present the number is reduced to about 2000. 
,3 F 2 
