CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 73 



fawns, and Mr. Fi.sher, the government trapper, reports that the same 

 holds true in that portion of the refuge lying north of the Trinity River. 



Coyotes and otlier predatory animals are quite numerous, and the 

 fa^^ns fall an easy prey to these beasts. Mr. Fisher reports having 

 seen the carcasses of five deer, and upon investigation he placed the 

 responsibility for their death upon coyotes. 



Mr. Fisher is an industrious individual, thoroughly understands his 

 business, and is making good as a destructive agency among predatory 

 animals in the refuge. He is laboring under adverse conditions, for 

 the deer and range cattle insist upon disturbing his "sets," but even 

 so, since he has been operating here there are many familiar voices 

 missing that one time gave tone and volume to the melancholy chorus, 

 as the coyotes held their nightly concerts far out upon the distant ridges. 



This area is amply provided Mdth natural salt licks, but they are all 

 situated in the lower altitudes, and the deer that frequent the higher 

 levels are compelled to travel a long distance to reach them. During 

 my terms of service on Hayfork Bally, I have salted the deer in that 

 section, and I find that they patronize the licks freely during the sum- 

 mer months. The young deer visit the lick practically every twenty- 

 four hours, and the large bucks and does visit it on an average of four 

 times each week. I am firmly convinced that the deer I have salted do 

 not go below the 2,500-foot level during the entire summer. The bucks, 

 during the M^arm weather, love to roam in the cool regions of the high 

 altitudes, and as food is abundant, they will remain there until the 

 rutting season, if provided with salt. 



Owing to the fact that I am able from my point of vantage to hear 

 nearly every shot fired in the southern and central portions of the 

 refuge, poachers do not often venture in during the months I am on 

 duty, and by salting the deer at that time, they are kept out of harm's 

 way, for it is a deplorable fact that some of the deer that go to the 

 river licks never return. Mr. G. 0. Laws, the excellent and efficient 

 local representative of the Fish and Game Commission, recognizes the 

 necessity of attending to this phase of the salting question, and has, at 

 his personal expense, left a standing order at the Big Bar store for all 

 the salt I might require for this purpose. "With some of this salt, I 

 have constructed a new lick near the spring where the deer water, and 

 it was found and used by them the second night after being placed. 

 At this date, about two weeks after I received the salt, there are seven 

 large bucfe and several does with their little ones who make almost 

 nightly visits to the lick within fifty yards of my quarters. 



The average resident of this district did not take Idndly to the refuge 

 idea, their principal cause of complaint being that it deprived them of 

 their best hunting ground, but the contiguous territory is so well stocked 

 witli game that it is only a matter of their going in an opposite direction 

 to hunt. However, the majority of them, if they do not approve of the 

 idea, have learned to tolerate it, and respect the will of the majority. 

 "We are troubled by the presence of a few chronic offenders and mal- 

 contents, but that is an ailment which is prevalent in all small commu- 

 nities. That the present generation has no right to exploit the earth's 

 resources at the expense of those who come after, interests these people 

 luit little. They have not as yet reached that state of near-perfection 

 when one, bj^ properly schooling himself, is enabled to overcome that 



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