Tho big aqusin of the lynx, the California Lion - known in 

 the eastern state* as panther, In the northwest as Cougar and 

 in South America as the puma - is too well laiown to require 

 description. He preys largely on the deer but will only eat 

 his own kill, so is hard to catch except with dogs. He has 

 stringy, hairy "fur" of no value except for rugs. The aver- 

 age specimen weighs 183 pounds and measures seven and a half 

 foot from tip to tip. They are not numerous on this Torest 

 except near the Yosemite Park boundary where the protected 

 deer attract them. 



Despite the general impression that 'inert are two kinds 

 of bears an this Forest, there is really but one - the little 

 brown bear. The few dark or black ones are only freaks. Every 

 one wants to kill a bear. Wild stories of the fierce nature of 

 cinnamons and grizzlies oause all bears to be much sought by 

 the collectors of fame and glory, but this brown fellow Is the 

 most timid of our fur-bear in# animals. like his northern 

 cousins, he hibernates, but may aorne out during an? mild spell 

 and return to hio lair when the cold closes dorm a-jain. Ee 

 feeds upon carrion. Insects, nuts, grass and berries. Now and 

 then when a favorable opportunity omes his way, he takes toll 

 of a band of youno 1 pigs but no other kind of livestock suffers 

 from his depredations. Hia fur is fairly fine, ancl a pelt 

 brings from" ;10 to ^25. 



Coyotes I pass over because they are so well known. They 

 help keep the deer down, but the fur, especially of those in tho 

 higher mountains, is fine and soft. A good pelt brought from 

 310 to C ; 25 in Hew York, cured, last montli. A green hide used to 

 brine t*3, but costs twice as much nT7, because it is in demand tc 

 line the ooats of the soldier boys in tlie trenches. 



He have two distinct foxes, the grey and the re~. The limit; 

 of the grey is 5000 feet while the lower limit of the red is 7000 

 The latter stays just as high ao he can get in summer coning dovr>- 

 to 7000 in winter. The red fox freaks more here than further 

 north. The red fox "freaks" more often than he produces pure 

 reel fellows. Zliese freaks are called "cross foxes", though not 

 a orosa between two species. The silver and the black arc both 

 freaks from the red, and are both rare on the Sierra. 1 caught 

 one pure silver in 1913, a very fine red and several "cross 11 , 

 but never a black. There is a tradition amons trappers that 

 the reason for the scarcity of black foxes is that the mother 

 kills them because they look so oddly unlike the rest of tho 

 litter when they are born. T.Tiatevor the reason, they are cer- 

 tainly rare. Before the war denand raised prices, a gre-; fox 

 skin sold for /I. 50, a rod for J5.00, a good cross for 025 and 

 a silver for from C-100 to 01500. Naturally my one silver ->elt 



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