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GAME SCARCITY IN OLYMPICS Timber Wolves and Panthers Responsible for Shortase of Elk and Deer DeerLike Like the bad penny John H Hammcrsly tlu veteran government hunter of Umpqua Mountains fame recently returned to his old home in Gold Hill after an absence of a number of months in the Tiiget Sound country August a year ago on the eve of an extended trip and vacation down in the southwestern states after having served the govern ¬ ment as hunter for the enemy of the game in the Umpqua Mountains E E Avcrlll of Pendleton of the Government Bureau for the Eradication of Predatory Animals in Oregon and Washington solicited the hunter by wire to go to the Olympic Mountains MountainsThis This unassuming woodsman who never tire of relating his last adventure in some isolated region to his old home friends could not pass up a call to invade and conquer a new wild accepted the offer and left for the Olympic range to capture the crafty mountain lion which was reported to be slaughtering game and stock in the foothills of that government reserve reserveHaving Having disposed of his mounts and pack horses and equipped with an auto to make the south ¬ western trip at Grants Pass he made but little change in Ills outfit and instead of going south he went north He came to Gold Hill to complete his arrangements before starting on the journey on a sultry day in August and it was while he was here for a few minutes stay that I got his late likeness and the picture of his outfit outfitHOW HOW THE LONG TBIP WAS MADE MADEThree Three of his most favored trained mountain lion dogs which are a cross of the Cuban blood and black and tan hound accompanied the hunter to the Olympic perched on the sideboarded footboards of the auto Bruce the chief of the pack had just passed through all the miseries of real sea ¬ sickness on his first auto ride from Grants 1ass As scon as the car halted he leaped from his perch and with a woebegone and disgusted look lie crawled under the machine and refused to be consoled by his many admirers When the hunter was ready to depart old Bruce with a neveragain expression refused to obey the sharp command of his master and mount to his cozy bunk on the footboard Fi ¬ nally the kindhearted hunter grasped the old fellow and chucked him int his berth berthBut But two of the dogs returned home one of the younger of the pack who had faced death and bore scars of many a well scored battle in chasing the panther to its lair fell the victim of a gun ¬ man While the hunter and his dog were delayed with their auto last January in Olequa Wash by the flood waters of the Cowlitz several days waiting to get across the river a footman passing their camp when the dog started toward him with a savage grown up and shot the dog without cere mony monyHOUGHING HOUGHING IT IN THE MOUNTAINS MOUNTAINSTiie Tiie hunter reports that after leaving Gold Hill lie traveled via Crater Lake Bend Pendleton Yakima and thence over the Cascade Mountains arriving at Port Angeles early in September After cruising the Elwau River district where he found but little game in the isolated districts the hunter returned to the settlements and engaged horse packers to take him to the headwaters of the Dungeness River Bidding his escorts adieu ac ¬ companied by his faithful hounds without compass and blankets witli fifty pounds of flour bacon coffee and cracklings for his dogs a canvas cover of blanket size and his gun strapped to him on his back early in October the hunter struck out into the tangled wooded wilds to cross the Olympic Mountains a distance of 150 miles After an un ¬ eventful journey of ten days he arrived at Secium a small burg on the shores of Puget Sound SoundIn In all that vast wilderness which he trod it was void and destitute of the markings of man where in former1 days vast herds of deer and elk roamed in that vast region in countless numbers On the whole trip in the wilderness he noticed but few signs of animal life His dogs treed two bears which he did not kill and the only animal he did kill on the trip was a ground hog He found the mountain streams bountifully supplied with the sportive trout which he hooked in large numbers and boiled for his dogs their principal diet on the trip tripTIMBEE TIMBEE WOLF AND PANTHER KILLERS KILLERSWhen When asked about the game and varmint prob ¬ lem in that part of the state lie replied But few of either remain The timber wolves and panther have eradicated the deer awl elk to such an extent in the isolated districts that what are left have fled to the settled regions in the foot ¬ hills to escape their pursuers and they are being slaughtered mercilessly by the hunters who are apparently ignorant of the fact that the game are making their last stand believing them to be quite plentiful in the interior The scarcity of the game lias caused the wolves and panther to attack tie stock in the settlements and unless the varmints are destroyed and the remaining game are fully protected from the hunters gun they are soon doomed to extinction extinctionKn Kn route home the hunter stopped off at Grants Pass and captured three mountain lions with his dogs out on Sucker Creek forty miles south of Grants Pass He is now on a trip over the Umpqua Mountains with pack horses in quest of the panther headed for Cottage Grove where he left his auto en route home Before leaving he promised Mr Averill that in the near future he would go to Sisters in Crook County to clean up the varmints in that district There is a standing reward of 200 at Sisters fgr a monster panther in those mountains which has killed hundreds of head of cattle
