Siskiyou Union High School - White and Gold Yearbook (Weed, CA)

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One day a herd bull challenged me to a duel and, in defending my throne, I had to accept his challenge and fight. We went up on the side of one of the cave banks and, as you see, he got the best of me. I was killed. It has been many' moons since then and my son has become Brigham Boss of the Harem, but I can sit here and watch my kingdom-for I am still King of the Sealions . . . From the mummy, it is but a few steps to the main cave which covers close to two acres and has a dome-shaped ceiling. A large part of the floor space is covered by the sea and here the sealions come and go through a large doorway at the west end. This doorway admits sea, birds, and light. These caves are interesting because they form the only mainland sealion home in the world where hundreds of sealions make their home. Around the first of March, the animals are more or less restless and there are not so many in the caves, as they prefer to feed on the surf and live on the rocky shelves near the caves. After Iune they are scattered up and down the coast and by mid-Iuly, they start coming back. By August, all of them have returned. Brigham, the Boss of the Harem, whose throne is the center rock in the main cave, rules by law of strength. I-Iis duties are many because he has to protect his throne from others-old and young, he must separate his wives when they become quarrelsome: he must prevent the yearlings from Worrying their mothers when the new puppies are born. The Pigeon Gullimot and the Puifins live in this region as well. The Puffins are small black and white birds marked like the Penguin and have a particular call of their own. They do not fly about, but mostly waddle about among the sealions on the beach. Words cannot express the beauty of the caves, ocean, and the interesting things found there. These caves, it is said, are far more beautiful than the Blue Grotto of Italy-so they are truly the Green Grotto of America. DOLOREZ SEVITS, '44 Butte Valley High School COLIN P. KELLY il-lonorable Mention? Courage!! Is it something all men possess? Men of breeding, men of class! Or is courage built within one's soul With an aim much higher than the highest goal? And why does man give his life F or the world he knows in continual strife? Unanswered go these words we know, Yet we have a hero who made them so- We pay tribute to deeds well done, We awarded this man a career for his son! RITA IO MCDONAGI-I Yreka High School, '43 21

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SEA LION CAVES tSecond Prize Storyl When I was taking a summer trip on the Oregon Coast I-Iighway-along Oregon's rugged coast line-I found one of nature's highlights: The Sea Lion Caves, which were cut out of solid rock countless ages ago by the sea. These caves are located about thirty-nine miles from New Port and some twelve miles north of Florence. From the cave office, about three hundred feet above sea level, one gets a marvelous view of the great wide ocean. Long, lazy swells come rolling in and dash themselves against the rocks as if in angry rage. Sealions lying along the beach and sea birds soaring far below are a beautiful picture not easily for- gotten. On a clear day it is easy for one to see Cape Blanca, the most westerly point in the United States, some eighty or ninety miles to the south. An old sea captain by the name of Cox discovered these Sea Lion Caves. He entered them on a calm clay about the year l88O. On one of these exploration trips, he was attracted by two herd bulls fighting on one of the cave banks. During this time, a storm arose and marooned the captain for several days but, having a gun, he shot a small sea lion and lived on the juicy meat of the flippers. One enters the cave by means of a trail cut in the cliff and an enclosed stair- way. At the bottom of the stairway a trail leads through a cavern. Here a mumi- fied sealion lies in semi-darkness-an ancient herd bull which may have been killed in battle or crawled up and died there. The queer thing is that, out of the hundreds of sealions which have died in this region, only this one has been pre- served. It has been suggested that, possibly, the oil in the flippers or the air currents or the soil in which the lion is embedded may have been the contribut- ting factors toward its preservation. If this sealion could talk, perhaps he would tell this story: . . . Many, many years ago, when I was but a young pup, I spent most of my boyhood days in this cave. My name is Rocky. My mother was one of the King's wives. He tried to keep me away from her when I was a few months old, but at times I would crawl up on the rock just to be pushed off later. I-le would say, 'Go out to the sea and get your own food as others do.' Although the king would impress you as being a cross old fellow, he was really very kind. One day, he took me out for the first time and taught me to dive, catch fish, and ride the waves. Moreover, he taught me to treat the Puffins kindly for they are good friends of the sealion. When spring came, I found myself a mate, named Sea Weed. As the days began to grow longer, we began to travel up the coast as almost all the younger sealions do. After many months, we finally arrived at a place only known to our kind. I-Iere we bathed in the sun. Sea life and fish were close at hand. This was Paradise. But soon all good things become tiresome and Sea Weed and I became lone- some for our cave home. We started out with our month-old pup close behind. We were forced to travel slowly because of him and it was here that we found a name for him. We called him Rolling Tide because the waves would pick him up and carry him to shore as a dog does a stick. When we at last reached the cave, the lions in and around it were all upset. The king had been killed while fishing and a new one was to be selected. After many fights, I was appointed Boss of the Harem. Sea Weed was very pleased and sat for many hours and looked at her lovely fur in the sunlight. After this, I had many duties to attend to and could not spend much time with my family. Of course, I selected many other wives, but Sea Weed was still my favorite. 20

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YOUNG AMERICAN Cl-lonorable Mention? The youngest of five brothers, the most promising of them all, the pride of the family, and yet he could be of no help. Why, everyone had always chosen him as the one most likely to succeed. Young jimmy Kelly thought it was ridiculous, even impossible that if he were all of these things that he could be of no help. He would show them. He must. He would prove his point-that he, too, could do something. Little or great, there must be something for him. If there was any- thing he could do, he would find it. For a lad of sixteen, jimmy Kelly had great ideas. The more he thought of them, the more clearly they were formulated in his mind. Nothing could discourage him now, his mind was made up. He was out to get what he was after, and he would get it, do or die. Why did they always treat him as a child? They should have realized by now that he had great ability. limmy's bosom swelled at the thought of that, but then, he didn't care if the others realized it or not. He knew it and that was all that mattered to him. He knew he had the courage to go through with it. Nothing would be too great to risk as long as he knew he was doing his part. How he regretted that he was the youngest of five brothers. How he envied them! He would gladly have exchanged places with any of them, if it were possible. Even at that he was very proud of them. He loved to be able to single them out as his brothers. Yes, he would have been even prouder if he had been counted as one of them. Yes, he would have been proud to be with them, doing his part along side of them. He just coulcln't stand idly by and watch others endeavoring to do their utmost while he himself did nothing. It would drive him crazy: he knew it would. limmy's heart was heavy as he thought how he was being cheated. Why should a little thing like age stand in his way? And to top it all off, his parents wouldn't even consider it. ln fact, they thought that it was just a young boy's foolish notion. What could such a young, inexperienced boy like himself do? lt hurt to have them think so. lt was then that jimmy lifted his heady gazed at a highway billboard, and looked into the eyes of a tall, long-bearded old man wearing the colors red, white and blue. jimmy seemed to know just what that man would tell him if he knew of Iimmy's situation. Yes, he knew that he would tell him that someday his turn would come to play his part well p and until then, jimmy should continue to have that great American spirit within him. And jimmy certainly had it. INEZ TOSARTI, '43 Weed High School W A R l CI-lonorable Mention? A blast of fury from the sky! A cannon's boomf And all is done. Once more, Desolation. Why? BUDDY TOWNSLEY McCloud High School 22