REPORT OF BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 
65 
In the southeastern part of Trinity County, where I was last summer with a 
band of sheep, I found about thirty deer carcasses in a strip of country about a 
mile long by a half a mile in width that had been killed by panthers during the winter 
and spring. 
In the winter time the snow drives the deer down into the streams in large 
numbers and keeps them there till it goes off in the spring, and the panthers, also 
driven down from the higher mountains, kill a great many of them ; and they are 
also very destructive on the farms in the spring and summer. So, taking everything 
into consideration, they are very destructive on the game. 
The people in this part of the country appreciate the effort you are making to 
preserve the game. 
Yours respectfully, 
[Signed.] James A. Foster, Jr 
HUMBOLDT COUNTY. 
Shelter Point, California, February 3, 1909. 
To the State Board of Fish Commissioners , San Francisco, Cal. 
Gentlemen : I wish to write you a little hunting story which came under my 
notice. Since January 22, 1909, William Barrow, a resident of this section, has 
killed five panthers and one lynx. Mr. Barrow’s last panther left a tale which shows 
how destructive these brutes are to the deer. 
According to Mr. Barrow, his dogs would not run the track when he came across 
it in the snow, but he, being an experienced hunter, knew that, although it was a day 
old, he stood a good show to raise him before night, so he followed the track. He 
did not raise him the first day, but went again the next day. During the time he 
followed this one animal Mr. Barrow came across five deer, all killed by having their 
throats torn out, but not otherwise badly injured. He followed him up the mountain 
into the deep snow, where deer were plentiful, and it was here that the panther 
showed his work. He went on higher until the snow became very deep and deer 
scarce, then he circled back down and returned to the last deer which he had slain. 
It was at the last deer that Mr. Barrow’s dogs surprised him, and the chase did not 
last long, for he evidently had eaten too much venison. 
Mr. Barrow brought his scalp in to-night and told me this story. He also killed 
one lynx while taking the five panthers. Hunting panthers with dogs is mighty hard 
work, especially when a man has from two to five feet of snow to contend with, 
and if it was not for the $20.00 offered by your Board, you can rest assured that 
even Mr. Barrow would not be putting in time looking for that kind of game. That 
the $20.00 reward, or bounty, has done more for the protection of deer than anything 
else that ever happened, and I believe that if we were able to exterminate panthers, 
lynx, and cats, the country would be overrun with deer. 
I have been a mountaineer for over eight years and a close observer of violators 
of game laws, and I think I am perfectly safe in saying it’s not the people who make 
game scarce, it’s wild animals. The people in this section are all in sympathy with 
the game laws and never complain about the one dollar license money. Game seems 
on the increase (all kinds, I mean), and there are but few violations. 
Very truly yours, 
[Signed.] . C. A. Chamberlain, Forest Ranger. 
LAKE COUNTY. ' 
Lower Lake, California, January 9, 1910. 
Fish and Game Commissioners, San Francisco, Cal. 
Gentlemen : As you wish a letter stating how this lion, killed November 15th, 
was taken, perhaps it will interest you to have the details just how it all came 
about. 
Early on the morning of November 15th I received a telephone from one of my 
herders to the effect that some animal had made a raid on his flock of goats the 
night before and killed some seventeen or eighteen head. 
I at once saddled my horse and in about three hours was at the place of the 
killing. I immediately concluded it was our old enemy, and didn’t have to wait long 
until my pack of hounds were in hot pursuit. After about an hour’s fast running, he 
was forced to take a tree in a thick jungle of brush. It took us some time to crawl 
to the foot of the tree, and it was then that my herder, who was slightly in advance, 
fired, but being somewhat excited failed to kill the lion, only causing it to come 
5 —FC 
