CHAPTER XXXVI. 

 A Mixed Bag. 



T PROMISED some of my old trapper friends back East, that I 

 would let them, who were fortunate enough to be subscrib- 

 ers to the H-T-T, hear from me. I will say that this is a 

 mountain region of the first magnitude. A man that cannot 

 mount a donkey and ride over a trail where the river is hundreds 

 of feet below, or as it looks to be nearly under him, and the trail 

 not more than twelve inches wide, hewn out of the solid rock, 

 he had best remain in the East. 



This is a sportsman's paradise, and the trapper will find here 

 prey in the way of bear, both black and brown, fisher, mink, rac- 

 coon, fox, otter, panther, or as the natives call them, mountain 

 lion, wildcat, skunk, civet cat and many other fur-bearing animals 

 and all quite numerous. Deer seem to be very abundant. I counted 

 thirteen in a lick this morning, and it is not an uncommon thing* 

 to see from ten to twenty in the licks at one time. 



The fishing is said to be the best in the spring and fall. It 

 is not an uncommon thing to catch salmon, weighing from six to 

 thirty-five pounds, and as it is only thirty-five miles to the Pacific 

 Ocean, they are of the very best quality. Mountain trout are plen- 

 tiful. 



Another animal that is plenty is the mountain goat. Bear, 

 mountain lion, and other signs are as numerous as those of rab- 

 bits in the East. I am not prepared at this time, to say how shrewd 

 these animals are to trap, but if they take bait as readily as they 

 are reported to, they must not be very hard to catch. There is a 

 bounty of $4.00 on wolves and the writer has seen numerous signs 

 of them. 



Will say to my friends in the East that while on my way 

 from the coast to the ranch, a distance of only fifty miles, and the 



311 



