196 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



paniea by Bert Hawley and brother. The largest deer bagged in Benton 

 county this season is credited to W. E. Brien, of Corvallis. It was a 

 five-point, weighing about 175 pounds dressed, and was killed in the 

 Alder Creek section. 



Bob White quail are quite plentiful in this county this season. 

 On August 29th the writer counted a covey of seventeen Bob White 

 quail on the R. L. Glass farm, and on September 3rd a covey of four- 

 teen was counted on the Whitaker farm near Winkle Buttes, and 

 again on September 7th a covey of thirty-seven was counted north of 

 Albany near Spring Hill. M. A. C. Tunnison, residing one mile north 

 of Corvallis, reports counting forty Bob White quail at one time on 

 his farm. 



GAME IN THE SECOND SMALLEST COUNTY IN THE 



STATE 



By Warden W. Brown. 



Pursuant to the request to furnish the Oregon Sportsman with an 

 article showing the game conditions and situation in Columbia county, 

 where I have been stationed since my appointment, which is of recent 

 date, I will say that I have traveled over the country pretty thoroughly 

 and have found the county, in my opinion, to be one of the most interest- 

 ing in the state. As I have traveled through many of the counties 

 of Oregon, and with all due consideration to the importance of the 

 other counties, I believe in a normal season that Columbia county 

 would prove a greater hunter's paradise for certain game than any other 

 section. The county, to my personal observation, presents more nearly 

 the primitive state from the fact that the virgin forests still comprise 

 the major portion of the county. 



Columbia county, of course, is the second smallest county in the 

 state, being only 677 square miles in area, and the population being, 

 I should judge, about 12,000 or 13,000 people. Outside of the cities of 

 St. Helens, Rainier and Clatskanne the population is scattered over this 

 area of rugged picturesque country. I say picturesque for the reason 

 that I believe every person who has had the good fortune to explore 

 the three corners of this county and follow the meander of the 

 Columbia River for the other corner, will readily agree with me that 

 this county will not suffer in , its charming location with any other 

 county in the state. 



The sportsmen who revel in the best wild game hunting to be 

 found in the West will find Columbia county the field for action. For 

 illustration, cougar, wildcats, timber wolves, and some bear abound 

 to some extent, and some of these, for instance, the cougar, are proving 

 a great menace to the deer, and if the cougar is not exterminated more 

 rapidly the deer will become extinct within a few years. I have not 

 had sufficient time yet to give as thorough a study to this important 

 branch of the state's resources as I will have accomplished in another 

 year. 



During the month of August, the first deer taken in Columbia 

 county weighed 150 pounds, and was killed by the Rev. Snyder j)arty, 

 of St. Helens, and the place where the deer Was shot was in the vicinity 

 of Trenholm. 



I have information of a number of wildcats killed in this county 

 during the month of August also. 



