Autumn Days in Ventura [pp. 1-23]

80Autumnz Days in Ventura.
Ojai; rose-colored feldspar from the
Matilija; fossil remains of whales and
sharks discovered on the Santa Paula
Mountains; pliocene fossils from the
low hills of Las Posas; Indian jars, mortars, pestles, pipes, ollas, arrow and spear
points, and war clubs of sandstone, all
of which had been dug up from burial
mounds and rancherias throughout
Ventura and the Island of San Nicolas.
The Doctor believed this island to
have been once inhabited by Aztecs,
whom Cabrillo describes as "comparatively white and of ruddy complexions."
Whether the extirpation of these people
was due to their massacre by the Aleutians as alleged by certain missionaries,
or whether a terrible drouth occurred,
as is indicated by the dead roots and
stumps of trees, will in all probability
never be known. The lost woman on San
Nicolas, of whom various writers have
given graphic accounts, was said to be
quite fair and of pleasant manners.
"How the poor creature could have
retained an affectionate and grateful
nature after eighteen years of enforced
solitude on a deserted island, is a question in anthropology that I am unable to
decide!" the Doctor modestly declared,
as he drew out a shallow drawer containing a collection of rare algae.
"These mosses," he continued, "I
gathered from the vast beds of sea-flowers on Anacapa. This island is full of
wonders for the scientist, besid-es furnishing the most remunerative hunting
and fishing on the coast. You would
hardly think that sheep and goats would
thrive there, with no other water than is
found in the nightly dews on the rank
vegetation. The enormous beds of kelp
are food and shelter for numerous varieties of fish, and the rocks are clambered
over by barking, squirming seals, which
are killed in countless numbers for their
oil, skins, and bristles. The island has
no wood. Scraps of tried blubber are
used for fuel, and water is brought in
barrels to sustain the party during the
hunt, which often lasts two or three
months. Besides the old seals, hundreds
of pups are slaughtered every winter by
the seal hunters. Then for romance
hunters," with a pleasant smile at Margaret, "there is the great cavern in the
rocks, with the surf thundering up its
vaulted passage. We hear stories of sumless treasures being hidden in its recesses by red-handed buccaneers that once
infested the place."
The judge looked up in evident amusement.
"There is probably as much truth in
the Anacapa treasure as there is in the
mysterious Silver Mine of the friars," he
said with a genial glance at his friend.
"Why, I don't know about that," the
Doctor replied half seriously. "I am
inclined to think that there is a rich silver mine in our northern mountains that
THE VENTURA BI( GRAPE VINE
5
1890.]