Hunting In Oregon And Idaho

Dr. J. C. Leonard, of Idaho, has been sending the University museum a number of valuable specimens, animáis, crystals, indian relies, etc. He writes very entertainingly to Major Harrison Soule and from one of his letters the following very interesting extract is taken: "All hunting hereis on horseback. The country is open, mountain gorges everywhere, but little timber, only in spots. By getting on top of a ridge, you look across a gulch and with glasses you can range 5,000 acres on the hillside sloping towards you. There may be a spring in the gulch with a snat of brush of two or three acres. By riding down to its edge and sending the dogs in, a bear, deer o elk is liable to run out and you have the whole side hill for 100 to 2,000 yards to shoot at him before he can make over the ridge. Should the bear turn on you, he will have to come down the hill and come up a steep hill 100 yards, in most cases, before he can reach you. So that you see with a good gun, he is at a disadvantage, and will die by the wayside. You don't want less than 45, 70 Winchester, as you will sometimes kill 800 yards. I have a pair of Spanish mules, weight 650 lbs. each. They are daisies. I shoot from their backs. I also have a pair weighing 900 each. When I go for a trip I pack one and ride one. All will follow and jump logs and streams like elk and stay in camp like dogs. If they get frightened in the night at varmints, they run to camp and give the alarm, when the dogs run out and scare the varmints away. When the mercury stands 100 in Boise Valley, I take the outfit, in August or September, and hie away in one day's ride to the high mountains and camp by a running stream or spring, set up ray little tent and at early dawn, sit in the door and watch an old buck deer or elk who hears the bell on the mules and ventures down the mountain side to see what it is, or perhaps he goes for water, and I have killed many a one while sitting there and then, hurrah boys, we have meat for breakfast. By way of a change we catch trout that weigh from fourounces to three pounds. Salmón trout weigh from 5 to 15 pounds. Remember, the high attitudeais cool. No flies, gnats or mosquitoes, and it is cool enough to sleep with two or three pairs of blankets. The water is cool nearly like ice and the snow is four feet deep on the high cliffs, around the edge of which are mountain sheep, goats, elk, deer and bear. I arr resting up here, as I have made ovei 2,000 miles this spring and my tearr was pretty tired. I shall start oui in a few days and I think I will ge to Nevada. You ask the cost of a grizzly bear, panther, etc. A prime hide of a grizzly is worth $20 to $40. Panthei hide probably $5 to $10. They are thick here on the De Schules river, about twenty miles from here. They measure from 7 to 12 feet from tip to tip. You have the white tail deer in Michigan. They weigh from 75 to 125 lbs. They are a fleet, brisk little animal, but few of them in this country. We have the mule deer here, black tail, that weigh from 100 to 300 lbs. with thehead cut off and intestines out. They are not fast runners but rather slow and the horns sometimes have 25 or 35 prongs. The grizzly here is not so large as the California grizzly. They are the Rocky Mountain bald faced bear, weight. from 700 to 1,200. The California grizzly weighs from 800 to 2,200 pounds. The largest grizzly on record was caught in a trap in Siskeyon county, California, in '58 and the parties advertised a bear and buil fight in Fort Jones, on the Fourth of July, '58. Three bulls were turned loose and made a dive for the bear. He gave a swipe at one and took the ribs clean out and caught the other by the horns like a man, and, giving his neck a twist, broke it. He threw, his arm over the other's neck and commenced eating its nose. It was all done as quick as you can wink your eye. He killed the three bulls. They shot the bear and, to settle a bet about the weight, he was weighed and tipped the beam at 2,200 pounds. They kill cattle on the range and will kill and carry off a four-yearold steer with ease. They are not as active as a cinnamon or brown )ear and are not as dangerous as the two latter, as they cannot climb rees, but they are fearless devils and will not give the road or trail. You speak about killing ten or ifteen deer in three or four weeks' hunt. I have killed that many in a day. I can take you where you can ei 11 200 blue grouse in one day. I like this kind of a life. I have spent 27 years in the profession, (dentistry,). for the benefit of the )ublic, but I am happier with my dogs, guns and my little pet mules, 'uda and Piggie, away in the mounains, 100 miles from the habitaion of man, where game is plenty and I am not annoyed with plughat conventionalities of society.