= 
74 THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
ately disappeared beneath the surface. 
In despair and fear Poor Lo made his camp 
onthe shore. All night long, strange and 
weird sounds, accompanied with sighs 
and moans, aros2 from the bosom of the 
lake, while ail the cliffs and mountain 
sides about re-echoed to the ominous 
sounds. Since which time Indians of any 
tribe rarely visit Spirit Lake, or its im- 
mediate vicinity, for ‘‘Here, ind2ed is the 
abode of ‘spooks’ who nightly heid high 
carnival on St. Helens glassy slop2s and 
make life burdensome for Poor Lo.”’ 
On the lofty snow-clad spurs contiguous 
to Mt. St. Helens, is to be found the 
Rocky Mountain Sheep,(J/e2a ma montanus. 
His jet black horns and long white fleece 
make him a specim2n well fitt2d to grace 
hall or office of the sportsman. His 
greatest delight seems to be in scaling 
dizzy heights and jutting crags, leaping 
from point to point, or across yawaing 
crevasses with umerring steps. On the 
high ranges there yet remain small bands 
ofelk. Brown aud black bears are plenty 
at huckle-berry time, beginning the last 
of August, while deer are almost always 
certain game about the buttes and pine 
ridges. 
Located on the north side of Mt. St. 
Helens, about 70 miles from Portland, are 
the St. Helens mines. The ground has 
never been worked by thorough prospec- 
tors. While the quartz shows large 
bodies of high grade ore, the placer mines 
have been almost entirely neglected. 
Many claims are being developed, The St. 
Helens Reduction Company, have put in 
sampling works, and the Milwaukee Min- 
ing Company have a large force of men 
developing their claims andj will soon 
erect large reduction works. 
* 1831. Was in a state of eruption,— 
Thornton. 
1843. In activity Nov. 13.—Fremont, 
page 193. 
1852-4. An active Voleano—Three year’s 
residence in W. T.—Swan, page 395. 
+ The Oregon Territory,— Nicolay, page 109 
+ Oregon and California,—Thornton, Vol. 1 
page 250. 
. 
CORRESPONDENCE 
A. B. Averill. 
Dear Sir 
Noting 
article ‘*The Denny Pheasant”, please allow 
me to say: The food which he dearly loves is 
grass-hoppers, cutworms, crickets etc. and, 
the chicks especially, are very fond of aphids, 
flea beetles etc. Turn a domestic hen with 
a brood of pheasant chicks into your cabbage 
lot and you will have no cabbage aphid, or 
flea-beetle. We have tried it. 
We used to think they would prove a nui- 
sance, when they first became numerous, but 
our further acquaintance has changed our views. 
They pay for all they eat, and more. It may 
be that they will crowd out some native birds, 
but if these latter are supplanted by a better, 
why should we mourn. ‘They are fully as use- 
ful insect destroyers, as our quail, or native 
pheasants and they are hardier, and better cal- 
culated to take care of themselves from skunks, 
hawks, crows, trappers pot-hunters etc. 
Our hens, in confinement, laid over 100 eggs 
each, last summer, and we now have a_pheas- 
ant hen sitting. The firstone we know of to 
sit in confinement. We are watching the ex- 
periment with interest. 
We have now the third generation from the 
wild state, and the birds are notably gentler 
rous. When strangers come around they 
appear wild. 
You say ‘‘this bird will hybridize with the 
domestic hen.” Please permit me to doubt! 
Our experience does not point that way yet. 
But he is THE game bird PAREXCELLENCE, 
your 
