20 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



during the summer season. The camp was the key to all that immense 

 territory, and was the distributing point for the hunter, game warden, 

 and all who visited this wonderful game preserve. 



The hunter had served with distinction in the late Spanish war, 

 with the Second Oregon, as corporal, in the Phillipines. After the war 

 and his discharge from the army he located on and acquired under the 

 soldier's homestead act, a claim situated near his present camp. The 

 claim was covered with a valuable growth of Oregon fir, and like most 

 of the homesteaders, attracted by the fancy prices offered for standing 

 timber, the hunter sold his tract to non-resident timber purchasers. 

 These timber barons are now holding their valuable assets until the 

 time comes when the iron horse will transport this timber to the valleys 

 below, then on to the markets of the world. A decade before many 

 hundreds of the claim holders covered this large region; it was now 

 unmarked by habitation, destitute of human beings, save and except- 

 ing this lonely government hunter. 



This" far-reaching woodland had reverted to the noblemen of the 

 forest — the deer and elk. The wild animals, as tenants, for ages past 

 had roamed over these grass and rill covered uplands. Nature, a 

 mother kind to all, who so bountifully provided this pasture for the 

 game, also made it the happy hunting ground of the Eedman, timber 

 wolf and panther, and these aboriginals of the woods, with their crude 

 and cunning mode of capture, were unable to reduce the number of 

 these prolific herds. 



These lofty Umpqua mountains extend across the southern part of 

 the state, a distance of one hundred miles, and are the connecting chains 

 of mountains which run east and west between the Cascades on the 

 east and the Coast Eange on the west. The gentle slopes of the Ump- 

 quas extend a distance of from twenty to thirty miles on the south to 

 the Eogue Eiver Valley, and on the north to the Umpqua Valley. The 

 Umpqua and Cascade mountains are the source of the waters which 

 feed the streams in the valleys below. The home of the sportive trout, 

 the little rill and the mighty mountain torrent flowing from these lofty 

 peaks form the two snow-fed rivers, the Eogue and Umpqua, which 

 glide onward to the Pacific. 



The deer in these mountains are increasing rapidly in number. Hun- 

 dreds are killed annually by the hunter in the open season, under the 

 regulation of the State Game Commission. The elk, but few remain; 

 in former years) the gun of the skin hunter, assisted by the timber wolf 

 and panther, nearly exterminated this noble game animal. The state, 

 assisted by the government, came to the rescue of the fast disappearing 

 elk and saved the remnant of the former herds in these mountains. 

 But, almost too late, so few were left when the slaughter was stopped 

 that the number could be counted on the fingers of the hands, but since 

 protected from the gun of the hunter they are slowly increasing in 

 number from that small herd. The game wardens of the state patrol this 

 preserve for the poacher during the accessible season, while the govern- 

 ment employs the special hunter throughout the year to capture the 

 predatory animals that prey upon his wards. 



The hunter, a person of considerable education, student of nature, 

 and writer, was born forty years before in an adjoining county. A son 

 of the hardy pioneer, he grew to manhood with the instinct of the 

 hardy race, who built an empire in the golden west. The wilds of the 

 mountains, the gun, the horse and dog, were the lords of his fancies. 

 When on the trail, his eye and ear was ever on the alert; instinct 

 seemed to guide the hunter through the dense and tangled forest. Pos- 

 sessed of an iron muscle, great power of endurance, he was master of all 



