154 THE ORBGON SPORTSMAN 
Accompanied by young DeCarlo we left the ranch early next 
morning. Both Bowers and DeCarlo were familiar with the winter 
range of the deer, so we had no trouble in locating them. After 
traveling some three or four miles up the mountainside we reached 
the cliffs which formed the dividing line. Along the crest of the 
mountain the snow had melted and we found considerable bare ground. 
We skirted along the edge of the cliffs for several miles. It was one 
continual bedding ground for the deer, but for all of that it is hard 
to estimate how many deer wintered there. During the day we saw 
several deer. They were very tame and appeared in good condition. 
We found the carcasses of five deer. Their bones were picked clean 
and hide and hair were widely scattered at every kill. In each in- 
stance the deer had been killed in the sharp draws, where the snow 
had drifted deep. We returned to DeCarlo’s that evening. 
The next morning we made another trip, coming in on the moun- 
tain farther east. Bowers and Walker crossed over the ridge and 
followed the deer trails into the deeper snow where the deer had 
been browsing on the young trees, but they found no further evi- 
dences of deer having been killed. Coyotes were the only wild animals 
we saw and concluded that they were the deer-killers. We counted 
thirty deer the second day we were out, but of course that represented 
only a small part of the deer that had wintered there, and no doubt 
there were a great many more deer killed there than we saw evi- 
dence of. The next morning we struck out for Ashland, arriving there 
late in the afternoon. 
From many parts of Jackson and Josephine Counties come reports 
of deer having been killed by wild animals, of which cougar, timber 
wolves and coyotes get the credit. There is a growing belief among 
sportsmen that higher bounties will assist in solving the problem of 
deer protection. 
WASHINGTON COUNTY NOTES 
By WarvDEN GEorGE W. RUSSELL. 
The past winter has been one of the hardest on game birds 
and animals that Washington County has experienced in years. Both 
game and song birds suffered a great deal from the great depth of- 
snow and the extreme cold weather. While the loss of life among 
our feathered friends was large it was very gratifying to note the 
interest taken by the people all over the county in trying to save 
the birds during the storm. Farmers from all over the county placed 
feed where both the game and song birds could get it. In one yard 
near Banks I saw nearly two bushels of oat hulls that had been left 
on the ground after the birds had eaten the kernels. 
A resident of Gales Creek told me he found a large buck that 
had evidently starved to death during the storm. This deer must 
have been so poor at the beginning of the storm that he was unable 
to withstand it. 
On March ist I was called to Gales Creek by a report that a 
deer had been killed there the day before. I found some of R. O. 
Stevenson’s tame deer had escaped from the park and his Japanese 
buck had been killed by one of the neighbors. This man was an old 
