THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



On the divide between Field 's station and Catlow valley, we saw 

 numerous signs of the sage hen. It is in this section that many of these 

 birds do their nesting. Their chief disturbance, of late years, seems to 

 have been the bands of sheep that are grazed there during the early spring. 



Along the foothills bordering Catlow valley on the east is one of the 

 very best winter ranges now afforded the mule deer of this section. The 

 native bunch grass here abounds in its original splendor, numerous springs 

 issue from the hillside and the mountain above is fringed with juniper 

 timber. It is about the rimrocks of this district that the trapper reaps a 

 harvest of wild cats during the winter months. 



Very little snow falls in Catlow valley and this was, until recently, 

 the winter range of thousands of antelope, but the valley is now being 

 rapidly settled and these beautiful animals will have to seek pasture 

 elsewhere. The southern portion of the valley, which is least settled, still 

 supports a considerable number, but in the northern portion we were able 

 to find but one band of twenty-two. While still in this valley, on the 14th 

 day of February, we saw a few Canada geese just returned from the south. 



When we returned to Burns on the 21st of February we found the 

 place still buried with a foot of snow. 



DO FISH SUFFER PAIN WHEN HOOKED? 



Some time ago, while fly casting for rainbow trout on Meacham 

 creek, an incident occurred which strengthens my belief that trout and 

 salmon do not experience acute pain or shock by reason of the wounds 

 which they receive when captured by the angler. This is the 

 second almost identical example which I have observed and it seems to me 

 to bear out this theory so strongly I feel impelled to relate it in detail in 

 the belief that it will prove interesting to your readers. 



On the occasion in question I was fishing in company with Edgar Aver- 

 ill, district deputy warden, and I showed him the fish which I took and 

 which, illustrated the point, and he can fully corroborate my statements as 

 to the facts. 



The small and medium sized trout were rising pretty frequently but 

 they were making a lot of false motions, so that but a small proportion of 

 the "rises" proved to be "strikes." At one cast I "raked" a fish good 

 and hard but the hold evidently tore out, for my cast came back to me 

 empty when the strength of the rod was given to it. 



Within the space of a few minutes and within a yard or so of where 

 this fish had been hooked and "raked" I hooked and killed a small trout 

 about eight inches in length. As I. took the fish in my hand, to disen- 

 gage the fly and kill it, I noticed something wrong on its side just back of 

 the gill opening. A closer examination revealed the astounding fact that 

 the body cavity of the fish was torn open by a fresh wound sufficiently 

 large to cause the stomach and other organs of the fish to protrude 

 through the opening, and nearly half of the stomach was actually hanging 



Fag-e seventeen 



