San Diego County CA Archives History - Books .....Out-of-Door Amusements 1888 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 20, 2006, 10:55 pm Book Title: The City And County Of San Diego CHAPTER XV. OUT-OF-DOOR AMUSEMENTS. SAN DIEGO COUNTY always abounded in resources for the sportsman and camper, and these attractions first brought here and secured as permanent residents such men as H. L. Story, E. S. Babcock, Jr., and many others who have aided largely in its development. There probably never was a more pleasant land for camping and traveling than this county has been. Good feed, fire wood, and water were abundant everywhere in the interior; the settlers were courteous and hospitable in the extreme; one could travel almost anywhere with a wagon, and anywhere on horseback, and camp almost anywhere without any danger of being disturbed or having anything stolen. The county was in fact about the safest part of the United States for either life or property. With the ocean on one side, the desert on the other, and Lower California on the south, it was a very difficult place to escape from. The tramp, the cowboy, the rustler, and all manner of hoodlums and malefactors quickly discovered that it was a fine place to get caught in and gave it a wide berth. The valley quail of California abounded in numbers quite inconceivable to Eastern sportsmen. One hundred and fifty to two hundred a day was an ordinary bag for a good shot, and in any of the canons within a mile from the post-office one could quickly load himself down with all he cared to carry back on foot. Fifty or sixty were a common score for one shooting only from a wagon in traveling from El Cajon, or Spring Valley, to San Diego in the morning or evening, and that many have often been shot there by one who knew nothing of wing shooting. This quail was found as high as six thousand feet above sea level, though not very abundant above three thousand feet, and most abundant along the coast, where they could always be found in great numbers with absolute certainty. No attention was paid to the law, and no impression was made upon their numbers until the building of the railroad brought in a host of market shooters. These generally hunted in pairs, and two men have shipped in one winter, from San Diego, thirty-five thousand quails, nearly all killed singly. The small hare, commonly called "cottontail," and the large hare, or "Jack rabbit," also abounded in incredible numbers. Morning and evening they played over every acre of mesa, hopped in scores around the edge of every brush-clad hill or patch of cactus. A bushel or two of them could be shot from a wagon in a few miles' drive along any of the roads. But three years ago one hundred and thirty-five were counted along the road in a single trip from San Diego to Old Town, about three miles. By nearly everyone they were considered a great nuisance, and they certainly were destructive to gardens, and vines, and young trees. There are, however, few of the old settlers who would care to exhibit a balance-sheet with rabbit meat on the credit side at even three cents a pound. The flesh of the cottontail is as white and fine as chicken, in no way resembling that of the Eastern rabbit. It runs with a swift, zigzag motion that makes very pretty shooting, especially on bright moonlight nights, the flickering white tail making a fine mark for snapshooting. Turtle-doves and meadow larks were also very numerous, the former especially, though not so abundant as the quail. Ducks of nearly all varieties were found in every lagoon and slough. In many places, such as Warner's Ranch, Temecula, San Jacinto, Elsinore, and Santa Margarita, geese and sand-hill cranes were very plenty during the winter. They covered the mesas and valleys of Santa Margarita at times by the hundred thousand. The sloughs and bays along the coast were lined with curlew, snipe, willet, dowitchers, plover, etc., and there was no prettier sight than the thousands of water-fowl riding on the smooth face of San Diego Bay on a bright winter day. Where nearly all is now a watery blank and where even the sea-gull scarcely dares to fly, pelicans, divers, mergansers, shags, ducks of nearly all varieties, brant, sea-gulls, fish-hawks, terns, and what-not were everywhere. So tame were they that from the wharf one could watch the divers beneath him swimming along under water behind a school of little fish, picking them up right and left with dexterous motion. The black brant, the finest of American water-fowl, not known on the Atlantic Coast and rare on this coast south *of Oregon, dotted the bay far and wide. Down Spanish Bight, the dividing inlet of Coronado Beach, where one may now watch for a month without seeing any, from fifty thousand to a hundred thousand could be seen at the ebb-tide coming into the bay from the sea. Reckless, idiotic shooting, the white man's hoggish disposition to waste and destroy, has reft this bay of one of its chief attractions. The antelope played over the plains of San Jacinto, Temecula, and the mesa between Otay and El Cajon. The last of the latter band was killed about five years ago, the last of the Temecula band about two years ago, and the sole survivor of the San Jacinto band was killed this last fall. The deer roamed from the coast to mountain-top. Though never so abundant as in the North, deer were still plenty enough for good sport. The variety is the mule deer, like that of Arizona, and not the black-tail of the North. Though settlement and the increase o{ hunters have reduced the numbers of ducks, geese, sand-hill cranes, and quails to a scarcity, which few of the old residents ever expected to see, very good shooting, compared with that of most other States, still remains. The quails and hares can never be exterminated, and though the labor of hunting them is much increased fair bags may yet be made. The deer hunting is still very good in most seasons and will remain so for many a year. There never was much trout fishing in this county. Trout were killed out of the Santa Ysabel Creek many years ago by the Indians, by the use, it is said, of "soap weed." They were swept out of Temecula Creek by the flood of 1862. A few yet remain in Pauma Creek, though sadly dwindled in both numbers and size. Fair fishing may yet be had in San Diego Bay, and the fishing outside the bar is about as good as ever. The barracouda and Spanish mackerel afford fine trolling, are gamy, ravenous, and very plenty in season. In the kelp is found an abundance of rock-cod, red-fish, and other good fish, which can be caught in great quantities about all the year around. There is no better place for rowing and sailing than San Diego Bay. The breeze is always certain, and equally certain to be never so strong as to be dangerous. Upon the great ocean the frailest boat may generally ride with safety, and the bar is nothing to cross. No country ever had better natural roads for riding and driving than this county before the travel became too heavy. Even now they could be kept good if scraped in winter when damp, a thing that will probably soon be done in all directions. Even as they are they make pleasant drives for the greater part of the year. Additional Comments: From: THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO. ILLUSTRATED, AND CONTAINING BI0GRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS. SAN DIEGO, CAL. LEBERTHON & TAYLOR 1888 File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/sandiego/history/1888/cityandc/outofdoo303nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb