1898] Notes of a Naturalist in B.C. 23 



challenge us to come up to him, as he stood silhouetted on a 

 ridge two thirds of a mile above us. But it was as much as our 

 lives were worth to attempt it, so we left him alone. 



They should have been down in the bottom of the canyon 

 at this time of the year, but the great numbers of Cougars' tracks 

 explained their keeping to the bare open elevations, where they 

 could see the crawling cat afar and make off. 



Deer were very numerous : saw 73. The hillsides were all 

 cut to pieces by their zig-zag trails, and we saw where several 

 had been killed by cougars. We refrained from shooting them 

 as the meat would have been wasted. I shot one, a small one^ 

 for camp meat, and when we came out we shot one or two more, 

 close to the lake, which we brought home. These gave me a 

 chance to see how my rifle works. The first w^as nearly 200 

 yards away, I raised my sight i ^ degrees and shot over him ; 

 instead of lowering my sights, I simply held well down his fore- 

 leg and piled him up in his tracks, with a shot through 

 both shoulders, the two bullet holes in the snow bank at 

 the other side of the deer were within three inches of 

 each other, one straight over the other. My old rifle 

 at this range would have had to be raised 3 degrees or so, 

 while this one shot high with i ^. This shows how flat it 

 shoots. I also shot a very big buck with a fine head at 140 

 yards as he walked across me, twice through the paunch and 

 Wver, d^nd he did not go ten yards before dropping dead. His 



liver was torn to shreds, and his lungs were all congested ; and 

 bleeding bloody froth from nose showed what a terrible shock 

 the bullet gives ; the lungs were not touched b)' the bullet at all. 

 I saw Golden Eagles and Ravens up there, after the animals the 

 cougars kill. 



Vernon, B. C, Feb. i, '98. — I was near Okanagan Lake, 

 opposite Vernon, during the 2nd and 3rd weeks ot January, 

 and brought back a lot of Nuthatches with me. Red-bellied 

 {Sitta Canadensis), Slender-billed (5. aculeata), and Pigmy 

 {S pygmcea). They were all mixed together in big bands, with 

 Chickadees, Gold Crests, etc. Strange to say, Townsend's 

 Solitaire, a delicate Sialine bird is staying here all winter and 

 singing. 



Allan Brooks. 



