ALAMEDA COUNTY Transcribed by: Linda Jackson 5/20/2008
The Ideal Place for Your California Home
by Henry Anderson Lafler
But it is not deer alone that furnish sport to the huntsman. Coyote and wildcat may be hunted in these hills, and occasionally a mountain lion is shot in the wilder sections of the county east of Mission Peak. As for feathered game, it is plentiful. California valley quail, one of the most toothsome of all game birds, is to be found in every wooded hollow; while doves, in season, furnish excellent sport, not only among the hills, but in the valleys and on the plains. As for fishing, Alameda Creek and its tributaries are alive with brook trout and up this and other streams the salmon run in the spawning season.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF WILD DUCK HAUNT THE
MARSHY SHORELINE OF SOME PARTS OF SAN FRANCISCO
BAY, AFFORDING THE FINEST SPORT DURING
THE SEASON
All the above are summer sports. But it is when the rains of the mild California winter are at hand that the hunter finds the greatest sport. San Francisco Bay--especially the rim of marshy land along its eastern shore in Alameda County--is the favorite southern refuge from the northern cold of millions of wild fowl. Snipe and plover skitter along the beaches. Every kind and variety of duck--canvas-back, mallard, teal, spoonbill--darken the air above the marshes and cover the water along the shore. It is estimated that 100,000 wild ducks and geese are annually bagged by gunners in Alameda County.
The vast numbers of wild fowl that come in the rainy winter permit the City of Oakland to furnish the visitor one of the most remarkable sights that may be seen anywhere. Almost in the exact geographical center of the city is beautiful Lake Merritt, covering 160 acres. It is connected with the bay and its waters are therefore not only salt, but rise and fall with the tide. From autumn to spring this lake in the heart of the city is the home of literally thousands of ducks. No shooting is permitted, and even the
LAKE MERRITT, IN THE CENTER OF OAKLAND, SHOWING SOME
OF THE THOUSANDS OF WILD DUCK WHICH FREQUENT IT
big canvas-backs and mallards become almost as tame as domestic fowl. When storms of wind and rain are imminent the ducks may be seen from the streets, homes and office buildings of the busy city flying over in hundreds to take refuge in the lake. Lake Merritt is nearly surrounded by parks, and allured by a bushel of wheat that the Oakland Park Commissioners daily appropriate, the more venturesome of the wild ducks, and especially the gulls and mudhens that accompany them, frequently venture out on the
GLORIOUS TROUT FISHING IS TO BE ENJOYED IN THE MANY
STREAMS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
clipped green lawns. The Park Commissioners recently refused permission to the operator of a hydroplane to alight in the lake lest it might frighten the ducks away. Which tends to prove that Lake Merritt comes near being the wild duck's paradise of the west.
A GLIMPSE OF NILES CANYON AND ALAMEDA CREEK
But to return to Mission Peak. To the northeast, something more than hills may be discerned--namely, in the distance a great and fertile valley. Let us descend to the Mission and motor three miles back to Niles (where, by the way, the Essenay Film Company maintains a great plant, because of the beauty and variety of the surrounding scenery) and "take the valley road."
MUNICIPAL FOUNTAIN, SITUATED IN LAKESIDE PARK, OAKLAND.
IN
THE DISTANCE MAY BE SEEN THE SILHOUETTE OF HOTEL
OAKLAND AND OAKLAND CITY HALL