144 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
The sportsmen throughout Marion and Polk Counties want the 
coming Legislature to pass a law to close all of the streams in Polk 
and Marion Counties to fishing from November 1 to April 1. The gen- 
eral dislike in regard to winter fishing throughout this district seems 
to be that the fish that are caught are spawning or are ready to spawn. 
And another bad feature of the law is that it makes violators of sports- 
men that under most conditions are O. K. An angler will go fishing. 
He knows the law allows him to catch trout ten inches or over. He 
gets one or two ten inches or over and about a dozen from six to nine 
inches long, and he will take a chance on smuggling them in, when 
if the law was so that he could not go fishing from November 1 to 
April 1 this temptation to violate would not come to the average sports- 
man. 
WALLOWA COUNTY NOTES 
Enterprise, Oregon, March 17, 1916. 
Oregon Sportsman: Knowing that the readers of the Sportsman 
are interested more in the fish and game conditions of the State, I will 
endeavor to give them some idea of the game conditions in Wallowa 
County. Game in my district have wintered very good here. Owing 
to the hard winter the snow got very deep in most parts of the county, 
but because of the deep canyons, where the snowfall is very light and 
does not lay on the ground any great length of time, we have abun- 
dance of winter range for both deer and elk as well as grouse and 
pheasants, which winter in those canyons. 
From the trips I have made in the game district I find that the 
deer and birds seem to be plentiful and in good condition for this tim 
of year. 
Mr. P. O. Shirley reports that during last month, while he was out 
hunting for bob-cats and coyotes, he counted 62 deer in a radius of two 
miles square, in Lightning Canyon, in the eastern part of the county. 
I have just returned from the Mud Creek country, in the northern part 
of the county, and find the deer very plentiful in that district. The 
farmers and stockmen tell me that there is more deer in that locality 
than there has been for a number of years. Also grouse and pheasants 
seem to be plentiful in that locality, and have wintered fine. 
The elk in the Billy Meadow pasture have wintered fine, and we 
have had no loss at all. The snow got to be very deep out there this 
winter. At one time it was 72 inches in depth there, and is about three 
feet deep at the present writing. I think that any ordinary winter 
the elk would winter in the pasture without hay. The timber in the 
pasture is covered with a long coat of moss, which the elk feed upon, 
and prefer it to hay. 
I have met with the rod and gun clubs of the county, and as many 
of the farmers and stockmen as possible, and have worked on the edu- 
cational line to get the people educated to protect the game and fish 
and co-operate with the Warden in apprehending any violator of the 
game and fish laws. 
Very truly yours, 3 GEO. W. MITCHELL, 
| Deputy Game Warden, Enterprise, Oregon. 
