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follow the snow line in winter, and, as a matter 
of fact come very close to the little farming com¬ 
munity of Round Valley. 
The next largest herd make their home in the 
neighborhood of the South Fork of Big Pine 
Creek, and from there on over to the rough 
Birch Creek and Mount Credo country; this herd 
consisted of about thirty head when last seen by 
the writer. 
Of all the game animals in California the 
mountain sheep stand in a class by themselves; 
nature has provided for their welfare in many 
ways, having provided them with a telescopic 
vision and a telephonic hearing. While bold and 
seemingly reckless in their rock and cliff climb¬ 
ing, they are quick to calculate, always on the 
alert, and their judgment is free from error; 
they are very robust and strong limbed, yet very 
active withal, and are capable of feats of great 
endurance and in many ways most astonishing. 
Notwithstanding what many people have written 
and said, a mountain sheep can not and never did 
leap from any great height and alight upon its 
horns. The fact that the desert sheep are rarely 
found with unbroken horns is due to their using 
them in seasons of drouth, for prying amid the 
rocks and boulders in search of a certain succu¬ 
lent and watery bulb, called by the Indians 
“Sequaya,” and which serves the sheep as a 
thirst-quencher until the springs are replenished 
and flow again; while in the Sierras, on the other 
hand, where water is plentiful, the horns are 
nearly always perfect to the very tips. When 
sheep are once pursued or fired upon, however, 
they can dash down an appalling declivity, touch¬ 
ing a crevice here and there, and land in perfect 
safety and condition, where to the observer it 
would seem certain to be killed. For one to fully 
and really appreciate mountain sheep, they should 
be seen in their native home amid the grandeur 
of the treeless slopes, far above timber line, in 
the Inyo section of the grand old Sierra Nevadas. 
The people of this county are duly grateful and 
appreciative of the splendid results achieved for 
them through the efforts of the State Fish and 
Game Commission. There is not a living stream 
within its borders to-day that does not teem with 
either rainbow, Eastern brook, cutthroat, Loch 
Leven or golden trout; at least fifty mountain 
lakes, previously barren of life, now hold 
millions of large Loch Leven and Eastern brook 
trout, and the bagging of a five-pounder of 
either of these high class table varieties has long 
since ceased to be rare enough to cause a com¬ 
ment, and is commonplace. The commission has 
well stocked seven streams in this county with 
trout, streams to which the fin of a fish was pre¬ 
viously unknown, and has added to this section 
an asset in the way of an attraction to outside 
people, and in actual food value, beyond the 
possibility of computation or of estimation. The 
Chinese or ringneck pheasant, introduced into 
this section by the commission, has also adapted 
himself to his new environment and is thriving 
ftnd multiplying rapidly. 
Beaver in the James River 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have read with much pleasure a number of 
articles published in the last two or three num¬ 
bers of Forest and Stream on the beaver. 
I had an occasion to be fishing in the James 
River about fourteen years ago for genuine small 
mouth black bass, and had as my companion 
Mr. Richard Clarke, a very good fisherman and 
huntsman as well. As we generally fished in 
the eddies behind rocks, in the swiftest of 
streams and as paddling or pulling oars up these 
streams is impossible, we used a square head and 
stern boat, and propelled it with a sixteen foot 
pole to get to the best fishing places. On 
pushing up a very difficult stream we came 
to a small island with a sand bank and 
willow trees. As the water eddied behind this 
known to be in James River for fifty years and 
nobody had ever caught one yet, and that I was 
throwing my time and labor away. 
I found a track and a partly barked small syca¬ 
more and at once set one of my traps as per di¬ 
rections, and set the other five on sand bars, and 
small islands in the neighborhood. The next 
morning I was up the river bright and early and 
on going the rounds found three rats for my 
trouble and pains but not disheartened I set the 
rat traps, smeared a little more bait on the same 
sticks over the beaver traps and proceeded home. 
The next day I induced a friend to accompany 
me and after poling the boat up the stream we 
came in sight of the first beaver trap set and 
could tell from the bank and sand that had been 
dug up that I had something large. In pulling 
Work of the Beaver. 
island and was about eight feet deep we con¬ 
cluded to try for bass, and on running.the boat 
on the sand I got out to cast. As I did so I 
noticed a track in the sand which looked as if 
made by a bear or some other large animal; on 
calling Dick’s attention to it he told me it must 
be a beaver track although he as well as myself 
had to confess we had never seen one before, but 
had often heard there was a family or colony of 
beaver in this river, they having made a dam 
between two islands about one-half mile below 
where we were. I told him that I was going to 
get some traps and catch one of these beaver 
and he remarked to me that this colony had been 
up the chain, I had the first beaver I had ever 
laid my eyes on. He weighed 67 pounds. That 
winter I caught 89 rats, one otter, three mink, and 
seven beavers, one of the last named weighing 
27 pounds, alive. I kept him in a barrel for two 
months, feeding him with sweet potatoes, peach 
limbs, sycamore, willow and sweet gum. He be¬ 
came so tame I could fondle him like a dog and 
often would put him out in the yard. I afterward 
sold him to Robert D. Carson, superintendent of 
the Philadelphia Zoo for $40 and no doubt he is 
there now. 
T. PETER HOWLE. 
Richmond, Va., Feb. 9, 1915. 
