1924

DMPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

NA': IO rjIL

PARK SERVICE

YO SEI J 'I ' NAT I ONE L PkHK Y O.S Ei I TE NA `TUEE NOTES VolumeIII Yosemite Nature GuideService Number 21 C. P. Fussell, Park Nattixalist This is one cf a series of bulletins issued from time to time fa' the information of those interested in the natural his to y and ssienxtifie f.atures of the park and the' educational.opperttinities the park affcr ds for the study of these subjects. Utilization of these 'bulletins by this e receiving them to the end that the information conta fined therein might be as e; tensiveiy distributed as possible will be appreciated.. J, 3. Lewis, Superintendent YOS BITE MUSED k Coil ER,sTCrrE LAID The new home.of the Yes emite Nature Guide Service is under e onstrue tion.

en November• 16, 1924 the Yosemite Village was formally dedicated and the Yosemite Museum cornerstone laid. Ninety invited guests cf the ratio;& 1 Park Service and the American Associa tion of Musenrns were present to witness the advent cf the new Yosemite. Director Stephen T, Mather and Su Merin tan dent 7. B. Levis in dedicatiion addresses opened the ceremonies before the coms)leted Administration Building. The crowd then mar ed to the nearby site of the museum, where •Airectcr slather introducer: Chief Naturalist Ansel F. Hall,;chow ith fitting speech laid the cornerstone. Mr, Hall, who is 'e4e.cutive agent for the Amer-icon Association of seums, welcomed the guests in the name of the as `sociat2on 'ari. e_preased h s regret that the honor of laying the cornerstone cf.' the first nat,ona nark mess Ifr could not fall upon one of :ho directs of the LaT ra peliinan R ckrefeller Memorial, since it was they who made possible the rapid development of educational work in the parks. He told how the Yosemite Museum had its beginning several years ago and how it was dev el op^through the e nt :hus laet e cc epe na,on of ris : tors. It should be said that Mr. Hall himself war the guiding infine.nee which festered this )ab1ic interest.

In 192 : it became apparent that the collect. )ns of the museum w're much too valuable to risk longer in the old wooden stree Lure in which they a re di p3.ayed. l'urthermon, the educational work of the Smite Nature Guido Service reached such proportions that added facilities were essential to adeque service to the public. A large fireproof structure was necessary. Aid from cheGoverr_ment was out of the question, so tentative plea:, for such a perm nent structure were d :rafted, axrl with these as a basis a e.n-,ei.cn for fuid: were laurehed. Substantial donations were rec;ived from Mr. and,is, Harry French Knight, Mr, and Mrs. Edward A. Ovid. t, Mr. Ha'. Evart's, to.: 'Yes emite National Park Company, and others, Then came the recognition fraT the A ner'ca.n Association of Museums. Mr. Chauncey J. Hamlin, president of thheA_eee e :ion brought the urgent need for national parks museeT'7 before the National Becr :at on Conference, the National Park Service, and the B e rd of Trustees of tile Lenra Spellman Rockefeller Memorial. This last named '. edy of men saw fit to gras s 75,O0O for the purpose of constructing the Yoser ite Museum to be erected under the directionof the American Association_ of My :: Ire.. To this generosity the National Park Service and the thousands of visitcas who corn in ever neeeasing numbers trrrarvel at and enjoy Yosemite's wonders ere indebted. The true message of the Great National Park may now be delivered to all of the hundreds of tho'z sands who will resort to the natural wonder of the Sierras.

The nee museum should be ready for occupy ncy May 1, 1925.

RARE BAT TA:CEN IN YO SEM I 7S.

On November 12 Mr. William Reymann found 8 ' huge bat hanging from a low limb of a tree near the Merced River in Yosemite Valley. The animal was stiff in death and had apparently succumbed to the cold. At the Yosemite Museum the specimen was identified as the California Mastiff Bat, Ems californicus. The species was first found ail Alhaniora, Los.Angeles County, California and described by C. Hart Merriam in 1690. Apparently, j,t is a. rare form, found in California in winter only. To the writer 's knowledge no record of this bat's occurrence at a point farther north than Yosemite has been made. A flying mammal with a twenty-inch spread of wings is a remarkable cr)ature, and only its rarity can acd:ount for its being noted so seldom,

A UNIQUE FOOD FROM MONO

`Thile we consider the attractions and commodities -.hat induced the Yosemite _Indians and the genes to open avenues of trade between their apposed territories so naturally separated by' the great ridge of the Sierras, we must not slight the entomological delicacy Ka-cha'-vee. This added article of ancient commerce car:-e from the saline waters of Mono lake in the form of a peculiar insect pupa. A species of fly breeds in Mono Lake in. nreat numbers, Any late summer visitor at the lake must be impressed with the great dark ridges along the shore., - made up of -millions of bodies of the undeveloped insects, which have hatched in tle lS.I. and been east in windrows upon the sands by the waves. Larly e::plorers in the Great Basin country noticed the abundance of the unusual creatures in the several salty 1 kes east of the Sierras and, in same instances, chronicled their observations in their journals, General J, C. Fremont

in his "Report of the second Exploring Eipedition to Oregon aril Northern Oa--` fornia", 1843-1844, remarks on the abundance of the insects and the Chore biro.,' that congregate to feed upon them. lie gives this further information: "When traveling - - in company with Mr. Joseph walker, an old hunter, I was inforred by him that, wandering with a party of men in a mountain country east of the great California range, he surprised a earty of several Indian families encamped near a small salt lake, who abandoned their lodges at his approach, leaving everything behind them. Being in a starving condition, they were delighted to find in the abandoned lodges a number d• skin bags containing a quantity of what appeared to be fish, dried and pounded. On this they made' a hearty supper and were gathering around an abundant breakfast the neat morning when Mr. '.yalkei discovered that it was with these, or a similar worm, that the bags had been filled. The stomachs of the stout trappers were not prof against their prejudices, and the repulsive food was suddenly rejected. ' Galen Clark, who began studying the local Indians in 1857, knew c€ the Indian trade that was carried on acmes the summit cf theSierra and records Kacha' -tee, Mono Lake "Worms", as one of the articles of trade. According to Cla r: the insects formed an important dish at every feast. In 1862 Samuel Clemens disengaged himself from his Nevada mining enterprises long enough to journey to the weird Mono Lake region to vie':' for himself the u ocanny phenomena described by the Coins tockers who had visited the place. In "Roughing-It" he sketches our subject in a style nearly as accurate as it is humorous : "There are no fish in Mono Lake, no frogs, no slakes, no polliV7ogs, nothing, in fact., that goes to make life desirable. Millions of rril'd ducks aid sea gulls swie, about the surface, but no living thing exists under the surface e cept a white, feathery sort of worm one-half inch long, which looks like a bit of white thresd frayed at the sides. If you dip up a gallon of water, youwill get about 15,00U of these. They give to the water a sort of grayish white appearance. Then, there is a fly which looks something like our house fly. These set tle on the beach to eat the worms that wash ashore, and any

time you can see there a billion of flies an inch deep and six feet wide, art this belt extends clear around the lake, a belt 'f flies one hundred miles long. If you thrtw a stbne among them, they swarm up so thick that they look dense like a cloud. You can hold them under water as long as you please. They do not mind it; they are only proud of it. '',Then you let them go they pop up to the surface as dry as a patent office report and walk off as u.concernedly as if they had bem educated especially with a vie,- to afford an instructive anentertainment to man in that particular way. Providence leaves nothing to go by chance, all things have thei

uses and their part and proper place in Nature's economy. The ducks eat the flies, the flies eat the worms, and Indians eat all three." The old files of newspapers of that once important city Bodie,California can ue depended upon to yield accounts of any early day activities, cif Mono Lake, The august 7, 1980 number of the Bodie Daily F=ee Press contains an account of Flute squaws harvesting "grubs" at Mono. The wave washed pupae were scooped into large piles with baskets, and the smelly mass allo wed to dry thoroughly. When dry, they were rubbed, which procedure removed heads, tails, legs,

etc. After further drying, they were packed for winter use. Ihite miners of the ono region. sometimes made use of them, grinding the tiny bea ies with flour and frying the eakes so formed. i4;'s. Fannie Cril;penJones, once of the famed Barnard's Yes'emite Hote.., described to the w.•iter a y trip she made in 1882 with a lady guest at Barnard'; Hovel to Mono for the express purpose. of witness-hog the Mono Indians harvestin?-this strange crop of the. loi':e. The journey was made in the saddle via the old Mono Trail. At the lake numerous Mono squaws were busy with basket s"' Oops, trans: fsi=rIn.g the white for of the shoreline and its cc__t ained "lar vae" to )let for°ee

It of strips of bark. On these platforms drying was accomplished, pre— 1 minery to further preparation. At the present' time Yosemite. visitch s hear of this strange food through haft Pre guides and the Yosemite Miiseuin. The Yosemi te tribe no longer es.ists to •impe t the finished article and but few of the 1ono Indians new prepare it. L :i.he nany o'the-- primitive foods,, Ka—cha'-vee is replaced by oanne,: goods cf the w h `.te man, and even the automobile road to Mono does not make accessible the sight of Indians gathering "worts".

ROTA T IC POTS

The month started off as though a heavy winter had begun. rin. and snow fell on the fourth and fifth and again on the ei :g th az ninth. Yrs mite Falls sprang into life once.more, and the Me'rs 'ed River rose a foot. After it all clearer away, the re. ir.•e 'many go den leaves i n the oaks and cottonwoods, and many days of fair weather. I'; seemed that there might remain a S':cT of autumn color at the end of :he month. Then one of `:hose raze w--ind_e from the north swept down Tenaya 0aan,7en, and the golden p aves' along with the green leaves of the Alder were shaken, to the earth. F w.;f=ll the p.'.eee. and on the higher levels the firs; c :Tiered the fore t floor with CJ:'!Sp brown needles. At the end of the month all deciduous ' trees were leafl'ees save for a few in sheltered situations; to these a few leaves still clur.;, Bnuouraged b, the rain and warm su _shine sweet wild grasses spread a fairy carpet under the oaks on the :nce th side of the Va l cy, There, too, millions of annuals have heard the false is per of eyeing sre. are _ gutting fie rth second leaves, ' Annuals and perennials on the greet wallssurree ding the Valley are showing fresh green laves. To the leafless Alder boughs delicate catkins are hung. Birds, bear, eat:. deer still gather fin= the earth the remedies of the bo~;tiful acorn harvest. 2'_e pine trees have opened their cones, and thee' in,eec seed hae foued the earth;1neie Nuthatches, C ickadees, 2urple Finche, and Dougles Squirrels search for them.-- Enid n:ichee.l.