148 ' THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
most. China pheasants, so far as I have been able to see, were not 
so noticeably killed off. Farmers and others did a great deal to save 
these birds during the worst part of the weather by putting out feed. 
Winter fishing under the 10-inch limit law has been slack on account 
of the bad weather, but it is showing signs of reviving as the weather 
gets better. 
Owing to the dryness of the mountain regions of this locality 
during the open season for deer last Fall, there were not as many 
deer killed as in previous years, which, however, will be all the better 
for the coming open season. The present hard Winter has had very 
little effect on the deer, so far as getting feed or standing the cold is 
concerned; and they have been seen in considerable numbers in 
several localities. For feed during deep snows deer depend on tree 
moss, browse off green twigs, and evergreen leaves of certain shrubs, 
which are not so easily covered up, and are always available as long 
as deer can get through the snow at all. This tree moss is the whitish 
hanging thread-like moss so common in higher altitudes. 
The deep snow, however, drove a great many deer down low in 
the foothills and river bottoms. The only trouble then is to keep a 
certain misguided element from killing them just because they have 
a good opportunity. This practice has been, and is still to some extent 
one of the destructive practices that have helped very materially to 
reduce the deer to their present fewness in numbers. It is something 
that every true sportsman ought to try to help to stop—it is a practice 
of the pot-hunter, and the man who has no regard for the game, or 
fairness in sportsmanship. 
The predatory animals, especially timber wolves, do not seem 
to be as bad so far this winter as for some years past. Up to date 
three cougars, 50 odd wildcats, and five or six coyotes have been 
killed in the Clackamas region. Hunters of the Sandy River, Molalla 
and Hagle Creek country also have killed a good many wildcats and 
coyotes, which will all help a good deal in the future supply of game. 
Timber wolves have always been destructive animals in this 
region, but this Winter only a few straggling ones have shown up so 
far. This may be due to the persistence with which they have been 
gone after by a few trappers and hunters during the past two years. 
About five years ago they disappeared under the same circumstances, 
and little trace of them was seen for a year or more, after which 
time they began to appear again in increasing numbers till this - 
Winter. Where they go is often a mystery. But when taken into 
consideration that the trappers, hunters and others in the mountains 
cover only a limited area of the mountain regions as a whole during 
the Winter time, there are a good many out of the way localities 
they can go and not be discovered quickly. Where it is so easy to 
shift their hunting grounds to their advantage, together with their 
crafty wits, makes trapping or hunting them very uncertain and 
difficult to one who undertakes to make a business of it in such a 
rough timbered region as this. 
Mr. E. F. Averill, of the Biological Survey, wrote me: not long 
ago that reports came to him that timber wolves were more numerous 
than common on the upper South Fork of the Santiam River this 
Winter, which may account for where some of the wolves of this 
locality have gone. That region is something like 100 miles from 
here, but is connected by an unbroken mountain country and it. would 
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