"Hugo Reid (in 1832) and Harris Newmark (in 1853) at the other end
of the faunal scale were mesmerized by the vast rodent metropolis that
covered the plains north of San Pedro. Reid complained that the
squirrels, rabbits, and gophers 'had so honeycombed the surface of the
ground as to make it dangerous to ride anywhere off the roadway faster
than at a walk.' The horrified Newmark, who mistook the thousands of
ground squirrels 'for ordinary rats,' felt as if he had 'landed on
another planet.'"
Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear.
