If it had not been that I might be seen, I should have
seized one, slung it over my head, walked off with it, and thrown it
by the old toss- I do not believe yet a lost art- to the ground. How
they called up to my mind the months of curing at San Diego, the
year and more of beach and surf work, and the steering of the ship for
home! I was in a dream of San Diego, San Pedro,- with its hills so
steep for taking up goods, and its stones so hard to our bare
feet,- and the cliffs of San Juan! All this, too, is no more! The
entire hide-business is of the past, and to the present inhabitants of
California a dim tradition. The gold discoveries drew off all men from
the gathering or cure of hides, the inflowing population made an end
of the great droves of cattle; and now not a vessel pursues the- I was
about to say dear- the dreary once hated business of gathering hides
upon the coast, and the beach of San Diego is abandoned and its
hide-houses have disappeared. Meeting a respectable-looking citizen on
the wharf, I inquired of him how the hide-trade was carried on. "O,"
said he, "there is very little of it, and that is all here.
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