Sport with Rod, Gun In Southern California By Charles Frederick Holder " Author of "Life of Charles Darwin," "The Big Game Fishes" Illustrated .. : G. P. Putnam's Sons The Knickerbocker Press COPYRIGHT, 1906 BY CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER Gift of The Knickerbocker Press, Rew York SK55 I` Preface N presenting these impressions of outdoor life and sport in Southern California during twenty or more years along shore and the Sierra Madre, I should perhaps say that the point of view has been one of personal experience alone, and the hunting days described are as I found and tried to make them. My conception of sport does not include a desperate killing, a plethoric bag or creel; the game is merely an incident in the day, and in the splendid cañons of the Sierra Madre, I confess, has often been forgotten. A hunting day, at least to my mind, should include a drawing for all the senses, not game alone, but the enjoyment of the flora, the variety in mountain view, the vistas of different kinds, the charming changes of colour and tone that sweep over the range as the hours pass, and the thousand and one diversions which nature always affords. Southern California lends itself particularly to such a definition of sport; its hunting grounds are staged with unwonted effects-lofty mountains, pallid deserts, seas of turquoise abounding not only in countless game fishes, but in a marvellous variety of living forms which appeal to the sportsman and fill out his days with asthetic as well as practical experiences. M150809 There is hardly wild game, big or small, in America that is not menaced by the spectre of extinction, and were it not for game laws, clubs of gentlemen, sportsmen of various kinds, wild life would in a short time disappear from the face of the earth. It should be the duty of every sportsman to conserve the gifts of nature. Sport with the gun, rod, spear, and hound is legitimate and manly, but there is an unwritten law among gentlemen that no sportsman will kill more than the camp demands, or rational sport justifies. The rod catch of tarpons last season at Tarpon, Texas, was nearly eight hundred fish, yet every one not needed as a trophy was released. I can conceive no greater example of selfcontrol than that illustrated by the angler who stops. fishing when but two tunas have been caught, though the waters are covered with schools eager for the lure; yet I have witnessed this marvellous thing. Southern California is an open book the year around. Every day, winter or summer, has its invitation to the lover of sport or nature; not only in the south but throughout the length of the land. The present volume is confined to Southern California, as to cover the entire State adequately would require much more space. Northern California possesses even greater natural wonders than the south and more big game, at least among land animals, The section described includes the region south of Point Conception, the counties of Santa Barbara, San Buenaventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, |